Basta-Tesic find glory in the Main Draw of Novi Sad Masters – Volleyball News
The pairing of Stefan Basta and Igor Tesic from Serbia worked out a wonderful performance in the opening matches of the Novi Sad Masters Main Draw on Friday.
The Novi Sad Masters Beach Volleyball tournament started off on Wednesday, July 4 with the Country Playoffs, but the Serbian team directly joined the Main Draw on Friday.
The home duo of Basta-Tesic took on Soderberg-Koren from Denmark in their first match of the Novi Sad Masters. The 18th-seeded Serbian pair was challenged by 15th-seeded Danish duo. The local heroes managed to edge out the visitors,
but the victory did not come easy for them. They had to dig it. The match spanned over three sets and lasted for almost 1 hour.
Opening stanza of the match was a heated competition. Both teams exchanged long rallies and staged a neck-to-neck fight. Serbs sent 22-20 on board and secured first set. Danish pair hit back aggressively and brought more ferocity in attack. Basta and Tesic
fought bravely, but could not avoid the loss in second set (19-21). Following the tie of score at 1-1, the game entered third decisive set. 15-point golden set featured many thrilling moments, which moved the spectators back ‘n’ forth in their seats. Using
the support of home fans, Serbs hit the mark with third-set win at 15-13 and settled for victory.
Second match was another thriller, where the home duo overcame second-seeded team of the competition. Austria’s Müllner and Wutzl had a total of 863 CEV ranking points. Nonetheless, Basta-Tesic did not show any sign of intimidation and achieved desired results.
The second-seeded pair could only claim one frame in the three-set affair and got defeated. Home duo posted 2-1 (23-21, 19-21, 15-12) win over Austrian pair and completed the winning streak of 2-0.
Igor Tesic shared his views at the end of the day. He said: “We are just taking this adventure step by step. Our first match against the team from Denmark was not easy as they are a very well-matched duo but we stayed concentrated up to the last point. The
second-seeded pair of the tournament was then waiting for us; we played a good game and the support of our fans from the stands combined with our fighting spirit and the motivation to win here in Novi Sad helped us make it to the next phase of the competition.”
Another Serbia, duo, which was composed of Jovan Markovic and Dejan Jovic, also appeared in the Main Draw of Novi Sad Masters, but Markovic-Jovic ended with quite opposite results. They dropped their first match to Armin Dollinger/Malte Stiel from Germany
and received a defeat from Dutch pair Bart Bolsterlee/Tim Jacobus Lokerse in the second fixture, which shifted them to 0-2 record.
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