Four home duos make it to Qualification Tournament at 2012 Prague Open – Volleyball news
Out of seven duos from host country Czech Republic, only four advanced to the next stage of the 2012 Prague Open men’s beach volleyball tournament.
The tournament took centre stage on Tuesday and opening day featured the Country Quota Playoffs. Teams from three countries including host Czech Republic competed at the CQs. One of the home duos did not have to put up any effort as it earned the qualification
after a forfeit. However, the rest of the teams got down to action and earned the berths. The pairing of Hromadko and Weiss was the first to reach the qualifying round of Prague Open via forfeit.
In the first match of Czech Republic CQs, Platenik-Lebl came into contest with Kolder-Leikep. The match started out with fairly balanced action. Lebl served with power but varied the length, which deceived the opposite pair. Kolder and Leikep did not get
the idea and trailed behind. They failed to overcome the country mates and lost first frame, 17-21. However, the opening set defeat was enough to teach them a lot of things.
Kolder-Leikep followed a better strategy in the next set and supplied plenty of power to their shots. Platenik and Lebl, on the other hand, had the advantage of previous set win. Hence, it was not an easy task to break their rhythm. As a result, the game
turned into a heated competition in the second set and both sides threw fire balls. In the end, Kolder-Leikep managed to prove their endeavour and downed the compatriots with a small margin of two points, 22-20.
In the third decisive set, score shifted up with incredibly close intervals. After a lot of ups and downs, the better team captured the limelight. Platenik-Lebl emerged successful as they claimed final set 16-14. Success allowed them to reserve a berth in
the qualifying round of the 2012 Prague Open.
Platenik shared his views after the match. He said, “It was quite predictable they would serve to me all the time, thinking I would not be able to cope from a conditional point of view.”
Likewise, Lebl commented, “It was a bit more thrilling than we expected, we had too many unforced errors. But we are glad we are in qualification and will do better tomorrow.”
The tandem of David and Lenc followed the footsteps of Platenik-Lebl and produced a winning performance against PAVELKA-Studnicny. They defeated the opponents 2-1 (21-23, 21-13, 15-10) and went straight into the Qualification Tournament. It took them 43
minutes to dismiss PAVELKA and Studnicny.
Kufa, D.-Pridal became the fourth team to enter the qualifiers. They defeated Bijecek-Doubravsky in two consecutive sets, 2-0 (21-14, 21-15).
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