Stare Jablonki, Poland, July 6, 2013 – Konstantin Semenov and Evandro Goncalves, two of the tournament leaders will go head to head in the men’s last 16 at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships on Saturday.
Semenov has been a powerful presence at the net and leads the way with 11 blocks over 30 sets in the tournament, including nine in his and Yaroslav Koshkarev’s win over The Netherlands’ Daan Spijkers and Christiaan Varenhorst.
Evandro will be doing his best to stop Semenov from dominating at the net, but at the same time trying to keep his level of serving high. He has landed the most aces at the World Championships, with 14 in nine sets and made his mark in their first match when he and Vitor Felipe rocked fifth seeds and fellow Brazilians Bruno Oscar Schmidt and Pedro Salgado with an opening win.
Four of the five women’s categories meanwhile are led by semifinalists.
USA’s 2009 world champion April Ross has the most successful attack percentage, with 72.4 of her attacks earning points.
Germany’s new sensations Karla Borger and Britta Buthe lead serving and spiking, the type of form that has allowed them to become the first German women’s team to reach a World Championships semifinal.
Borger has landed 19 aces, while Buthe has been successful with 120 spikes.
Liliane Maestrini of Brazil meanwhile has continued the form that allowed her and Barbara Seixas to win the bronze medals at the Rome Grand Slam. She has dominated at the net with 26 blocks in 13 sets.
The only exception is Austria’s Katharina Schutzenhofer, who has the most amount of digs with 62, three more than number one seed and another semifinalist, Zhang Xi of China.