Home teams shine on opening day of EEVZA Velykalnis Open
News
Temperatures exceeded 30 degrees in Rokiškis on Friday, as the action started for the first stop of this year’s EEVZA Beach Volleyball Tour featuring men’s teams from Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia.
In the qualification round eight teams from Lithuania, Latvia and Russia fought for their place in the Main Draw, with four eventually staying in the competition. After contesting single elimination matches, two Lithuanian teams – i.e. Donatas Pasvenskas/Lukas Bernotas and Linas Petravicius/Edvinas Vaskelis – and two Russian teams, Grigoriy Goncharov/Aleksei Arkhipov and Vladislav Ermilov/Egor Kirillov, progressed to the Main Draw with teams from Latvia and Lithuania ending their journey.
The start of pool play action coincided with triumphs for teams representing Latvia and Lithuania. In Pool A, Latvians Arnis Relins/Marcis Jirgensons celebrated a 2-0 (21-18, 21-9) win against Jakub Nowak/Filip Lejawa of Poland, while the tournament top-seeded team Artur Vasiljev and Robert Juchnevic of Lithuania upset their comrades Nerijus Lauzadis/Martynas Beleckis. Home favourites Tomas Stasevicius/Arnas Rumsevicius needed 50 minutes of exhausting fight to edge Latvians Kristaps Punculis/Rudolfs Stankevics 2-1 (16-21, 21-16, 15-10) in the first encounter in Pool B.
This year’s #EuroBeachVolleyU22 silver medal winners Ardis Bedritis/Arturs Rinkevics of Latvia did not leave any chance to Lithuania’s Pasvenskas/Bernotas as they secured a comfortable 2-0 (21-12, 21-14) victory in Pool B as well.
After making it through the qualification round, Russia’s Goncharov/Arkhipov continued their winning run as they beat Poland’s Mateusz Florczyk/Mariusz Prudel 2-0 (21-18, 21-15). The other Russian team in the Main Draw, Ermilov/Kirillov, put up a good fight but eventually lost 1-2 (21-16, 16-21, 12-15) to home stars Patrikas Stankevicius and Audrius Knasas. Latvia’s Mihails Samoilovs and Rinalds Aispurs started their campaign with a 2-1 (21-15, 20-22, 15-10) victory over their Lithuanian neighbours Petravicius/Vaskelis.
Emanuele Monduzzi/Alberto Moro, the first Italian team to contest a stop of the EEVZA Beach Volleyball Tour, suffered a setback, as they lost in straight sets to Timo Ander Lõhmus/Dimitriy Korotkov of Estonia (14-21, 13-21).
The main draw competition will resume on Saturday morning when the battles for the coveted EEVZA Velykalnis Open trophy will continue.
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