News Beach volleyball 24/08/2013 Horst and Petutschnig crush Russia’s hope for a medal Moscow,Russia, August 24, 2013 – Alexander Horst and Lorenz Petutschnig crushedRussia’s hope of finally winning a medal at the FIVB Moscow Grand Slam onSaturday. The Austrians first eliminated Grigoriy Goncharov and Serguei Prokopiev and inthe quarterfinal they also defeated first seeded Konstantin Semenov andViacheslav Krasilnikov in three sets (16-21 29-27 15-11). The new Austrian team reached the semifinals, in which they will meet Brazil’sEmanuel Rego and Evandro Goncalves, totally unexpected. “I just wanted to playwell and maybe win one game. I just can’t believe it”, Petutschnig said. The 20-year old won bronze at the U23 World Championships this year with TobiasWinter. But he had never played in the main draw of a Grand Slam before and wasinvited at the last moment to play with Horst, when Horst’s partner ClemensDoppler injured his knee at the European Championships in Klagenfurt. “Our goal for this tournament was to get out of the pool and we did that afterour second game more or less”, Horst said. “Everything else afterwards, we justwanted to play and try to do our best and have fun.” “I expected him to play good of course. But he had to play a lot of side-outsthis week and he made a lot of points and not a lot of mistakes. It’sunbelievable.” The new pair only had one practice together. “Because last week he was at theunder 22 European champs and he came back at Monday afternoon and on Tuesdaymorning we already had our flight to Moscow”, Horst said. “So of course this is amazing. We gave him a chance and he took it.” After 2-0 wins over Latvia’s Ruslans Sorokins and Toms Smedins and Russia’s Goncharovand Prokopiev the Austrians lost the first set against Semenov and Krasilnikov.The Russians even had two opportunities, at 23-22 and 27-26, to claim victory,but Horst and Petutschnig kept coming back to reel in the set at their sixthset point. After that mental blow Semenov and Krasilnikov were not able to get their acttogether. A lot of Russian serves went out of bounce and at 14-11 Krasilnikovhit the ball out. “When we were leading in the third set I could not believe what was happening”,Petutschnig said. “I looked on the scoreboard and it was 13-10 or 13-11. Andthen Semenov made a service mistake. I was just laughing because I could notbelieve it.” Brazil against Latvia in the other semifinal Gstaad champions Ricardo Santos and Alvaro Morais Filho also made it to thefinal four, the fourth time this year. They will play Latvia’s Janis Smedinsand Aleksandrs Samoilovs. The vice-world champions from Brazil had to play three matches on Sunday,because they finished second in the pool after losing to Russia’s Goncharov andProkopiev. First they eliminated the world champions Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen2-0, then Kazakhstan’s Sidorenko and Dyachenko 2-0 before they defeated anotherDutch team, Jon Stiekema and Christiaan Varenhorst in three sets: 18-21 21-1915-13. “They played really, really well”, Alvaro said about tall Stiekema andVarenhorst. “They were in front most of the time. I think in this match ourspirit, the eye of the tiger was the reason we won.” In the tiebreak the Dutch took a two-point-lead twice, at 4-6 and 9-11, but at12-11 Ricardo and Alvaro took over and finished the game at their second matchpoint. Asked if Russian gold could top Gstaad gold, Alvaro said. “Gstaad wasdifferent, because it was my first gold. But here in Russia, it’s my first timehere, I feel the spirit of volleyball. People really enjoy the game. Theybreathe volleyball.”FIVBMoscow Grand Slam Tournament PageFIVBMoscow Grand Slam Men’s Main DrawFIVBMoscow Grand Slam Women’s Main DrawFIVB Moscow Grand Slam Twitter Account Print this Page News {{item.LocalShortDate}} {{item.Title}} All the News