Warsaw, Poland, June 12, 2019 – Alexandra Jupiter & Aline Chamereau were the only team, which managed to go against the seeding in the women’s qualifications at the four-star Warsaw stop on the 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. The 10th-seeded French pair as well as seven of the top eight seeds booked their spots in the 32-team main draw pool play starting on Thursday.
Jupiter & Chamereau started their qualification day with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) win over Japan’s Kaho Sakaguchi & Reika Murakami, seeded 23rd. In the deciding round, the French duo delivered a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) upset of seventh-seeded Nicole Laird & Becchara Palmer of Australia to advance to the main draw.
“It was a big fight. We felt a little bit tired because of the heat, but we kept our heads up and went straight into battle. We won and we are so happy!” Chamereau said.
“I guess the seed doesn’t always mean everything. It’s pretty tough to make it in four- and five-star tournaments, but you can never give up. Everybody’s got their chance. Tomorrow is a new day, a new competition... Now we are going to celebrate a little bit, try to enjoy this moment, then rest and be ready for tomorrow,” Jupiter added.
All of the top eight seeds enjoyed byes are straight-set victories in the first qualification round, but in the second some of them had to persevere through tough three-setters before progressing. Three of them even had to come back from a set down to reach the precious tie-breaker wins and make the main draw.
Japan’s Megumi Murakami in reception
Fourth-seeded Joana Heidrich & Anouk Verge-Depre of Switzerland did so against 13th-seeded Ukrainians Diana Lunina & Maryna Samoday, even going to extra points in the third set to eventually win 2-1 (18-21, 21-18, 18-16). Fifth-seeded Megumi Murakami & Miki Koshikawa of Japan lost the first set to China’s Jinjin Zeng & MeiMei Lin, seeded 12th, before stepping it up on the way to a 2-1 (21-23, 21-9, 15-12) turnaround. Olympic and world champion Laura Ludwig and her partner Margareta Kozuch of Germany, seeded eighth, managed a 2-1 (18-21, 21-17, 15-11) come-form-behind win over ninth-seeded Amaranta Fernandez Navarro & Angela Lobato Herrero of Spain.
USA’s Emily Stockman & Kelley Larsen, seeded in #1, Brazil’s Talita Da Rocha Antunes & Taiana Lima (#2), Slovakia’s Andrea Strbova & Natalia Dubovcova (#3) and Latvia’s Tina Graudina & Anastasija Kravcenoka (#6) were the other four teams, emerging successful from Wednesday’s qualifications.