Ukrainians and Polish in top form as Queen & King of the Court begins

One men's team from Ukraine and two from Poland had strong starts at the Queen & King of the Court European Finals 2023 on Wednesday, topping their pools at the d’Coque, in Luxembourg, and advancing to the tournament’s quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Ukraine’s Sergiy Popov/Eduard Reznik and Poland’s Michal Bryl/Bartosz Łosiak and Piotr Kantor/Jakub Zdybek were in dominant form in Luxembourg and will enter the quarterfinals with the coveted golden balls, which allow them to replay a rally that doesn’t go their way.

Popov and Reznik had a dramatic victory in Pool A. The Ukrainians, who won the first round and were second in the second, battled toe to toe with Swedes David Åhman and Elmer Andersson until the last second, when they scored the winning point to top their opponents 13-12.

The Swedish and third-placed Marco Krattiger and Florian Breer of Switzerland have also advanced to the quarterfinals. Ranked fourth and fifth in the pool, English Issa Batrane and Frederick Bialokoz and Latvians Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins will have to survive the playoff round to make it to the quarterfinals.

A new team in international beach volleyball, Kantor and Zdybek gave promising early signs by prevailing over some strong teams in Pool B. The Poles had a slim edge (13 to 12) to get the win over the French brothers Quincy and Calvin Aye in the third and decisive round.

Finishing third and also advancing to the quarterfinals are Germans Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler, who registered seven points in the last round. Czechs Jan Dumek and Jiri Sedlak and Luxembourg’s Chris Zuidberg and Simao Novais finished at the bottom of the pool and will need to go through the playoff round.

Their compatriots Bryl and Łosiak had arguably the strongest performance in the day, outscoring their opponents in Pool C in all three rounds. The Poles got to 15 points and brought two rounds to an early end, including the third one, when they overcame Austrians Maximilian Trummer and Christoph Dressler (four) and Czechs Vaclav Bercik and Krystof Nemec (three).

Going to the playoff round from Pool C will be French Arthur Canet and Téo Rotar and Luxembourg’s Maciej Complak and Felix Terwindt.

Pool D will be the last to be concluded, with the series set to begin at 14:50 local time on Thursday. Playing for the three spots in the quarterfinals will be Czechia’s Ondrej Perušič/David Schweiner, France’s Youssef Krou/Arnaud Gauthier-Rat, the Netherlands’ Dirk Boehlé/Mees Sengers, Italy’s Daniele Lupo/Enrico Rossi and Luxembourg’s Steve Weber/Colin Hilbert.

Thursday’s schedule in Luxembourg City will also feature two playoff rounds and the first of three quarterfinal series. All matches are streamed live on EuroVolleyTV.