The semi-final clashes of the major Futures tournament of the Beach Pro Tour world circuit, which will conclude on Sunday at the picturesque Venid Beach in Sveti Vlas, have been set. In the women's competition, the Dutch duo Brecht Piersma & Wies Bekhuis will face the Americans Kennedy Coyle & Brooke Sweat, while the other American pair - Carly Kan & Madalyn Anderson, will meet Elsa Descamps & Marine Kinna. In the men's battles for a spot in the final, two Austrian pairs, Florian Schnetzer & Lorenz Petutschnig and Christoph Dressler & Maximilian Trummer, will compete against each other, as will the Dutch Mees Sengers & Dirk Boehlé with the Americans Hagen Smith & Logan Webber.
The top-seeded women's main draw pair, Piersma & Bekhuis, were the first to secure a spot among the semi-finalists on Saturday afternoon. After a 2:0 (21:12, 21:13) victory against Belgian qualifiers Ines Pirès & Annelore Bex in the quarter-finals, the Dutch tandem is still without a lost set in Sveti Vlas.
“The beach here is so beautiful, and the people are so pleasant, which makes our qualification for the semi-finals even better!” exclaimed 22-year-old Bekhuis after the victory. “We will fight for a place on the podium, so we will give our all tomorrow.”
“Yes, we are very happy to be in the semi-finals, but we hope to qualify for the final as well,” added current U21 Women's World Champion Piersma.
The remaining women's semi-finalists are also without a lost set so far, and after their convincing victories in the groups yesterday, they also won their quarter-final matches cleanly today. Number 5 in the draw, Coyle & Sweat, defeated the number 2 seeded Dutch pair Kirsten Bröring & Emi van Driel with 2:0 (24:22, 21:17). Number 6, Kan & Anderson, overcame the Czechs Valerie Dvornikova & Anna Pospisilova with a convincing 2:0 (21:12, 21:16), and number 7, Descamps & Kinna, defeated the Israelis Anita Dave & Yali Ashush with 2:0 (21:19, 21:9).
The two Bulgarian pairs who reached the round of 16 of the tournament performed excellently on Saturday morning and caused a lot of emotions among the fans around the center court, but after winning their first sets, they lost after a tie-break. First, Irena Mishonova & Desislava Nikolova lost to Pirès & Bex with 1:2 (21:16, 17:21, 11:15), and then Darina Kindova & Eva Petrova were defeated by Dave & Ashush with 1:2 (21:18, 8:21, 10:15).
Both the number 2 seeds in the men's draw, Schnetzer & Petutschnig, and their compatriots, number 5 Dressler & Trummer, had to come back from a one-set deficit in their quarter-final matches, but ultimately celebrated victories. Schnetzer & Petutschnig overturned the Israelis Tomer Hadar & David Lanciano for 2:1 (16:21, 21:17, 16:14), and Dressler & Trummer celebrated a spot among the semi-finalists after 2:1 (13:21, 22:20, 15:9) over Greek qualifiers Iason Kanellos & Panagiotis Ioannidis. Number 3 in the draw, Sengers & Boehlé, also had to deal with their quarter-final opponents in a tie-break – 2:1 (21:19, 17:21, 15:6) over the Australians Joshua Howat & James Takken, while the top seeds Smith & Webber secured a clean 2:0 (21:15, 21:17) victory over the Dutch Quinten Groenewold & Sam van der Loo.
Unfortunately, no Bulgarian men's pair managed to celebrate a victory in Sveti Vlas, but in Saturday's matches, Dimitar Mehandzhiyski & Dimitar Kalchev again showed the greatest potential to compete with international competition, fighting equally with Groenewold & Van der Loo, but losing 0:2 (17:21, 16:21).
The first referee's whistle on Sunday morning will sound at 09:00 with the first women's semi-final, followed by the other women's semi-final, the men's semi-finals, the third-place matches, the women's final at 15:00 and the men's at 16:00, all occurring every hour on the hour. All these matches will be broadcast live on Nova Sport TV.
All results:https://en.volleyballworld.com/beachvolleyball/competitions/beach-pro-tour/2024/futures/sveti-vlas-bul/schedule/
Photo gallery(women):https://www.cev.eu/beach/beach-pro-tour/2024/sveti-vlas-futures-mw/women/#photos
Photo gallery(men):https://www.cev.eu/beach/beach-pro-tour/2024/sveti-vlas-futures-mw/men/#photos