Irena Mishonova & Dessislava Nikolova and Darina Kindova & Eva Petrova qualified for the round of 16 on Saturday at the Futures tournament, part of the Beach Pro Tour world series, which continues until Sunday on the beautiful Venid beach in Sveti Vlas.
In their first matches of the tournament, whose main draw began this morning near the Marina Dinevi yacht port, the two Bulgarian women's pairs celebrated victories that secured their participation in Saturday's round of 16. The experienced Mishonova & Nikolova were the first to bring Bulgarian joy to Sveti Vlas. In a Group C match, the 14th-seeded Bulgarians in the 16-team draw defeated number 3 Valentin Paul & Lisa Bonne from Mauritius with a score of 2:0 (21:13, 24:22).
“We are very happy that we won, because it's our first time at such a tournament in Bulgaria,” said Irena Mishonova immediately after the match. “We were a little nervous, but we are quite happy that in the first game we started so well. Perhaps after that we relaxed a little, precisely because we made a big difference in the first game, and we had quite a few serving errors.”
“Yesterday we saw these opponents for the first time. We had no expectations for this match, but we managed to start very focused and that helped us play a very good first game. After that, our serve really didn't go very well, but we managed to maintain the situation and win,” added Desi Nikolova.
Immediately after them, Kindova & Petrova, seeded 4th in the draw, stepped onto the center court in Sveti Vlas, facing the Czechs Michaela Brzinkova & Anika Dundackova, who made an excellent impression in yesterday's qualifications. This Group D match was much more contested, and after a dramatic success for the Bulgarians in added time of the first game, it was decided only in the tie-break, again with joy for Bulgaria – 2:1 (27:25, 15:21, 15:12) for the Sand Lionesses.
“The feeling is incredible. These matches and victories are very important for Bulgaria, so that we can all believe in ourselves. This is important not only for us but also for the other Bulgarian pairs. Irena and Desi gave a good start to the day and gave us strength too,” said Kindova after the match.
“We made a lot of mistakes, but the important thing is that in the end, we pulled ourselves together, started receiving well and serving well and, most importantly, we played as a team,” added Petrova.
In the afternoon, both pairs played their second matches, facing two strong American pairs as their opponents in the battles for first place in the group and direct qualification for the quarterfinals. Carly Kan & Madalyn Anderson defeated Mishonova & Nikolova with a convincing 2:0 (21:9, 21:6), while Olympian Brooke Sweat & Kennedy Coakley overpowered Kindova & Petrova with a 2:0 (21:11, 21:9).
Thus, the two Bulgarian pairs finished second in their groups and are awaiting for their round of 16 opponents some of the pairs that finished third. Among them could be the other two Bulgarian pairs – Ivet Gavrailova & Eleonora Gicheva, who lost their match today against the top seeds Brecht Piersma & Wies Bekhuis from the Netherlands and will face the Israelis Anita Dave & Yali Ashush tomorrow morning at 08:30, as well as Vili Tsenova & Raya Tsenova, who conceded to the Dutch number 2 seeds Kirsten Bröring & Emy van Driel and at the same time on Saturday morning will meet the Belgians Ines Pire & Annelore Bex.
Besides the two American pairs, Piersma & Bekhuis and the Frenchwomen Elsa Descamps & Marine Kinna also won their groups in the women's draw and qualified directly for the quarterfinals.
In the men's main draw, Dimitar Mehandzhiyski & Dimitar Kalchev were closest to success in their match, but after winning the first set against the talented German youngsters Joke Johanning & Ole Sackermann, they conceded with 1:2 (21:19, 13:21, 7:15) and tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM they will play for third place in their group and qualification for the round of 16 against the Dutch Quinten Groenewold & Sam van der Loo. With the same hopes of entering the eliminations, Nikolay Kostov & Mario Iliev will face the Australians Solomon Bushby & Ben Hood also at 11:00 AM, Lachezar Stoimenov & Konstantin Stoikov will face the other Australians - Joshua Howat & James Takken, at 10:10, and at the same time Penyo Nenov & Georgi Botev will meet the Greeks Iason Kanellos & Panayiotis Ioannidis.
The winners of the four groups have already qualified for the men's quarterfinals: Hagan Smith & Logan Weber (USA), Florian Schnetzer & Lorenz Petutschnig (Austria), Mees Sengers & Dirk Boehlé (Netherlands) and Christoph Dressler & Maximilian Trummer (Austria).