Latvians, Austrians and Dutch on to the semis in Luxembourg
Queen & King of the Court European Finals
Teams from Latvia, Austria and the Netherlands secured the first spots in the women’s semifinals of the Queen & King of the Court European Finals 2023 after the first of the three quarterfinal playoffs were held at the d’Coque, in Luxembourg, on Thursday.
Reigning European champions Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova, Austrian sisters Dorina and Ronja Klinger and Dutch up-and-comers Emma Piersma and Mexime van Driel finished in the top three of Quarterfinal A and continued to move forward in the tournament.
For the second-straight day, reigning European champions Tina and Anastasija finished in first place in a round and earned the right of using a golden ball to replay a point they had originally lost – the two will carry this advantage to Saturday’s semifinals.
The Latvians had the highest score in the third round of the quarterfinals, scoring 11 points against six of the Klingers and two of Piersma and van Driel.
Tina Graudina“We were waiting for the right moment to use the golden ball today. Our plan was to use in the final round, but we were open to use it earlier if the score was too close as well. I think we made a good decision of using it in the third round and now we’ll have the opportunity of using it again in the semifinals.”
Latvian Beach Volleyball Player
Thursday’s schedule also included pool play action, with Pool D going on in the afternoon. Germans Laura Ludwig and Louisa Lippmann were the winners, getting to 15 points in the third and final round and overcoming Lithuania’s Gerda Grudzinskaite/Rugile Grudzinskaite and France’s Lézana Placette/Alexia Richard, who scored five points each. The three teams advanced directly to the quarterfinals.
On Friday, the remaining two quarterfinals will be played, as well as a playoff round. The top three teams in each quarterfinal will move forward to the semifinals, as well as the best-ranked duo in the playoff round.
Quarterfinal B will be the first to start, at 14:30, reuniting the Netherlands’ Brecht Piersma/Emi van Driel, Germany’s Cinja Tillmann/Svenja Müller, Placette/Richard, Norway’s Sunniva Helland-Hansen/Emilie Olimstad and Spain’s Belén Carro/Angela Lobato.
Starting at 15:50, quarterfinal C will reunite Ludwig/Lippmann, Poland’s Jagoda Gruszczynska/Aleksandra Wachowicz, Spain’s Sofía González/Paula Soria, Grudzinskaite/Grudzinskaite and Czechia’s Marketa Sluková/Helena Havelková. The playoff round is scheduled for 17:10 and all matches are streamed live on EuroVolleyTV.