Budapest, Hungary, August 8, 2019 – Natasa Savovic and Milena Matic marked their first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour by reaching the Budapest 1-Star main draw on Thursday.
The Serbian pair are playing in their first World Tour tournament in tandem and they defeated Slovakia’s Lenka Vandakova and Jana Simanicova 2-0 (21-13, 21-10) to progress as one of four teams per gender who qualified for the main draw that begins on Friday.
The Hungarian capital is hosting a World Tour tournament for the first time and it is taking place in a 1,000-seater arena at Lupa Beach which is located 20 minutes from the centre of Budapest. The winning teams in Budapest will collect the €1,000 first-place prizes and claim 200 Tokyo 2020 Olympic points.
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Russia’s Daria Mastikova and Polina Tsyganova beat Ukraine's Daria Romaniuk and Anna Chechelnytska 2-0 (21-15, 21-16), Lithuania’s Karole Virbickaite and Gerda Grudzinskaite enjoyed a 2-0 (21-14, 21-13) over Hungary’s Eszter Kovács and Panna Györi, while Switzerland’s Lea Buser and Anna Lutz completed the quartet with 2-0 (21-16, 21-14) defeat of Slovakia’s Eva Elekova and Kristina Harmavova.
In the men’s competition Slovakia’s Vid Jakopin and Tadej Bozenk beat England’s Philip Smith and Issa In the men’s competition Slovakia’s Vid Jakopin and Tadej Bozenk beat England’s Philip Smith and Issa Batrane 2-0 (21-13, 21-12), and Jaroslaw Lech and Michal Korycki defeated Serbia’s Vukasin Rajkovic and Damjan Pusonjic 2-0 (21-8, 23-21).
Sebastian Kaczmarek and Adrian Sdebel ensured that two Polish teams would reach pool play when they saw off the Czech Republic’s Dominik Samec and David Kufa 2-0 (21-15, 21-15). Italy’s Samuele Cottafava and Jakob Windisch reached their third World Tour main draw with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-18) victory over the Netherlands’ Jannes van der Ham and Thijs Nijeboer.
