32 Teams battle it out in intense qualification matchesÂ
The opening day of the FĂ©dĂ©ration Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) Beach Volleyball World Tour â Langkawi Open 2018 got underway on Thursday. The single elimination qualification games were held to determine the best four teams from each of the men and womenâs categories that will advance into Fridayâs main draw and first pool phase of the tournament.
Despite wet conditions in the morning at Pantai Cenang, all 32 teams from both categories produced an exciting day of competition throughout the day.
With wins in their matches today, the four teams that will progress to the menâs main draw are: Max-Jonas Karpa/Milan Sievers (Germany), Paul Becker/Eric Stadie (Germany), Simon FrĂŒhbauer/Jörg Wutzl (Austria) and Petr Bakhnar/Taras Myskiv (Russia).
Amongst the first to progress was the German pair of Karpa/Sievers, who commented, âWe did it and made it to the main draw! Hopefully we are able to play as well as we did today tomorrow and we will see how far we can go as there are a lot of good teams.â
Also making it through the qualifiers Russians Bakhnar/Myskiv noted, âitâs unbelievable as it was a crazy and tough game. We are so happy to make it to the main draw. We would like to thank everyone who came to support us today!â
Also progressing to Fridayâs main draw for the ladies were Brittany Kendall/Stefanie Weller (Australia), Katja Stam/Julia Wouters (The Netherlands), Marta Ozolina/Agnese Caica (Latvia) and Chiyo Suzuki/Reika Murakami (Japan).
Speaking of their advancement to Fridayâs main draw, the Dutch pair of Stam/Wouters comments, âIt is so awesome as we have worked so hard for this, all winter long.
“That it is working is awesome.â Looking forward to the main draw matches, they added, âfor us, we just want to play our own game and play what we can, I think we can surprise a few people!â
âWhat an awesome start to the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour â Langkawi Open 2018! Well fought by all 32 teams who had to battle it out in the single elimination qualifications, demonstrating what we can expect the competition will be like over the next few days! Congratulations to the eight teams from the menâs and womenâs categories for making it into the main draw tomorrow.â comments Andrew Ching, Chief Executive Office of E-Plus Global Sdn Bhd, promoter and organiser of this yearâs tournament.
Friday will see the start of the primary competition with the group phase to determine positions in the round of 12 and quarterfinals on Saturday.
The semi-final and medals-determining matches will take place on Sunday (29 April). In addition to the playersâ ranking points, competitors can also look forward to a share of the US Dollar $10,000 prize money.
With the FIVB as the governing body for the Olympic sport of Volleyball, the Langkawi event is part of the World Tour 1-Star (WT1) tournament. After Langkawi, the tour will continue with the Manila Open (3 to 6 May) and Bangkok Open (10 to 13 May).
