Antalya, Turkey, May 10, 2016 - Like their male counterparts from Serbia, Milena Matic and Marija Milosevic are starting to enjoy success in FIVB World Tour qualifiers as the pair won a pair of matches during the preliminary rounds here Tuesday on the BeachPark courts to advance to the women’s Main Draw in the US$150,000 Antalya Open.
Quick linksFIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Antalya Open
Men - Qualification resultsWomen - Qualification resultsMen - Main draw resultsWomen - Main draw resultsSeeded 12th in the Antalya women's qualifier, Matic and Milosevic were one of eight teams advancing to the "money" rounds in the international event by defeating 21st-seeded Rebecca Perry/Agata Zuccarelli of Italy 2-0 (21-11, 21-19) in 30 minutes and fifth-seeded Angela Lobato/Paula Soria of Spain 2-1 (14-21, 21-15, 15-13) in 40 minutes.
The two wins marked the first time during the 2016 portion of the 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour calendar that the Serbian women have advanced from an international qualifier after failing to advance from the preliminary rounds in the last month at stops in China (Xiamen and Fuzhou) and Russia (Sochi). The pair did play in a FIVB Main Draw here last October where Matic and Milosevic dropped three-straight pool play matches.
"What a relief," said the 30-yearold Milosevic, who returned to Serbia in the past year after going to school and working in the United States where she played Volleyball at South Carolina and Oregon. "We had a lot of issues in playing the last month in China and Russia, but we had them worked out today. The goal was stay patience and positive with each other."
With the Serbian Volleyball Federation supporting an Beach Volleyball effort, the 24-year old Matic and Milosevic join Stefan Basta and Lazar Kolaric as the country's central figures on the FIVB World Tour. Basta and Kolaric will be attempting to qualify for their fifth-straight international Main Draw Wednesday in the men's preliminary matches as the pair placed 17ith last week at the Sochi Open.
"It helps to have the support of the federation," said Milosevic, who was living, working and coach in Portland before returning to Serbia. "I feel our win against the Spaniards today is a confidence-builder. Wednesday is a different day with more tough competition against teams that have much more experience than us. It will be challenging for us, but the goal is to keep getting better to be competitive."
With Germany having three teams in the qualifier Tuesday, each won a match to gain Main Draws. Top-seeded Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude, second-seeded Victoria Bieneck/Julia Grossner and third-seeded Teresa Mersmann/Isabel Schneider were the German qualifiers.
Other women's qualifiers Tuesday were fourth-seeded Anastasia Barsuk/Alexandra Moiseeva of Russia, eighth-seeded Amaranta Navarro/Ester Ribera of Spain, 10th-seeded Jagoda Gruszczynska/Dorota Strag of Poland and 11th-seeded Kristyna Kolocova/Michala Kvapilova of the Czech Republic.
The women’s Main Draw will featured 48 pool play matches on Wednesday and Thursday followed by three rounds of elimination bracket competition Friday to set the lineup for Saturday’s semi-finals and medal matches. The men’s schedule in the FIVB World Tour event will feature a qualifier Wednesday followed by Main Draw pool play matches Thursday and Friday and elimination Saturday. The semi-finals and medal contests will be played Sunday. The winning teams in the Antalya Open will share the $11,000 first-place prizes.
The FIVB World Tour stop is the second-time that the world’s best Beach Volleyball is returning to the BeachPark courts in an eight-month period as the inaugural Antalya Open was held here last October 20-25 with teams from the Czech Republic and Italy capturing the women’s and men’s gold medals, respectively.
The US$150,000 Antalya Open is the part of the qualifying process for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games to be played on iconic Copacabana August 6-18. This week’s event will be the 25th of 28 women’s events in the Rio qualifying process and the 27th of 30 men’s stops.
The top four finishers from the 2015 Antalya Open are in the field this week, including Barbora Hermannova/Marketa Slukova of the Czech Republic, Marta Menegatti/Viktoria Orsi Toth of Italy, Emily Day/Jen Kessy of the United States and Ana Gallay/Georgina Klug of Argentina. Menegatti and Orsi Toth are currently the No. 1 team on the women’s 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour ranking list.
Playing in only their fifth event together here last October, Hermannova and Slukova defeated Italians Marta Menegatti/Viktoria Orsi Toth 2-0 (21-15, 21-17) in the 40-minute gold medal match. After losing in the semi-finals to the Czech girls, Day/Kessy rallied to defeated Gallay/Klug 2-1 (18-21, 21-14, 15-13) in the 62-minute bronze medal match.
Led by Murat Giginoglu and Volkan Gogtepe, host Turkey entered four women’s and four men’s tandems in the Antalya Open. Giginoglu and Gogtepe, who placed ninth in the inaugural BeachPark event, are the 12th-ranked men’s team on the FIVB World Tour.
Other Turkish men’s teams in the Antalya Open Main Draw are Devrim Alibaba/Kemal Sah and Hasan Mermer/Sefa Urlu. The host country qualifying men’s team will be Ali Nurettin/Safak Sezer. Representing Turkey in the women’s “money rounds” will be Merve Aktas/Esra Koksalan, Atasoy Burcu/Selin Yurtsever and Resmiye Cakmak/Yaren Sencel. The pair of Ebru Karayilan/Aleyna Vence were eliminated in Tuesday’s qualifier by Czech Republic team of Kolocova/Kvapilova.