Stage is set for English Masters beach volleyball
12th September 2008The stage is set for more top-flight beach volleyball as the main draw of the Nestea European Championships Tour English Masters gets underway at St Chad’s Headland in Blackpool tomorrow (Friday).
The final places in the main draw were determined in today’s qualification tournament. The highest ranked players on the tour went straight into the main draw and get their campaigns underway tomorrow.
It’s the first time a Nestea European Championship Tour competition has been held in the UK. The event is being hosted by VisitBlackpool and the Northwest Development Agency.
There were four places up for grabs in the women’s main draw in today’s qualification competition. They went to Emilia and Erika Nystrom (Finland), Polina Bratuhhina and Kadri Puri (Estonia), Danielle Remmers and Michelle Stiekema (Netherlands) and Sara Montagnolli and Kerstin Pichler (Austria).
Finnish sisters Emilia and Erika Nystrom dispatched Norway’s Janne Kongshavn and Kristine Wiig 21-16, 21-15 in the final women’s game of the day on the impressive show court.
Afterwards Erika said: “We didn’t feel under any pressure today, so we just went out and played. We served well and we didn’t make many mistakes. Tomorrow will be a much more difficult, but at the moment we’re just happy to be in the main draw.”
The young Dutch pairing of Danielle Remmers and Michelle Stiekama followed up yesterday’s country quota success by beating Switzerland’s Muriel Graessli and Nadine Zumkehr 21-15, 21-19.
But there was disappointment today for some of the young British teams. Liane Herbert and Vicky Palmer went down 21-11, 21-19 to Norwegians Janne Kongshavn and Kristine Wiig in the opening contest of the day on the impressive show court, before they in turn went out to the Finnish pair.
Palmer said: “We’re quite a young team and we were playing an experienced team.
“We came back well in the second set,” she added. “We were there or thereabouts, we just couldn’t quite finish it off.
“It’s been a great experience playing here. The home crowd were awesome. I’m really impressed with the way it’s set up and run. It’s a definite step forward having tournament like this in England,” she added. “It’s amazing for us just to be around some of the top players from Europe.”
The more experienced pair of Denise Austin and Mel Coutts couldn’t repeat their success in yesterday’s country quota game. They battled hard but couldn’t quite take the Estonians Mari-Liis Graumann and Natalja Bratuhhina to a third set, going down 21-16, 21-19.
Two further British pairings begin their campaigns in tomorrow’s main draw. Lucy Boulton & Zara Dampney and Denise Johns & Shauna Mullin make their first appearance in the women’s main draw.
Meanwhile the French team of Andy and Kevin Ces booked one of four places in the men’s main draw, winning the final qualification contest of the day on the show court. But they did it the hard way, trailing the Czech pair Jan Dumek and Pavel Rotrekl 0-8 in the first set, they battled back to take it 21-11, but then went down 16-21 in the second.
The Czech pair had three match points at 11-14 in the deciding set, but the Frenchmen battled back to win it 17-15 to progress to the main draw.
Kevin Ces said: “We made maybe the worst start we have ever made in the first set and we then made all the mistakes we could at the worst moments in the second set to let them into the game. But it was good to win it at the end and to be in the main draw.”
Earlier the Ces brothers had dispatched the young Bath-based pairing of Tom Lord and Jake Sheaf, who have only been playing together since July.
Lord said: “They’re a world-class team, so it was a great experience for us to play against them. When you come to a tournament like this you want to play on the show court against the best team.
“We started off quite well, but their experience came through in the wind. They served and kept the pressure on consistently. We were only able to do that in spurts.
“The standard of team playing here in Blackpool is incredible and we’ve both learned a lot,” he added.
Lord and Sheaf had earlier beaten compatriots Barry McGuigan and Graham Riddle 21-18, 21-14 before going down 21-9, 21-12 to the Frenchmen.
Italy’s Gianlucca Casedei and Paolo Ficosecco, Denmark’s Anders Lund Hoyer and Bo Soderberg and Austria’s Felix Blauel and Alexander Huber also booked berths in the main draw.
The British men’s pairings of Jody Gooding & Robin Miedzybrodzki and Steve Grotowski & Gregg Weaver begin their campaigns in the main draw tomorrow (Friday).
Play on Friday gets underway at 9am and runs through till 8pm on the courts on Blackpool’s iconic promenade. The action continues on Saturday and reaches its grand finale on Sunday. Admission is free throughout the competition.