Sochi, Russia, May 7, 2016 – If it wasn’t for Tri Bourne and John Hyden, the semi-finals for both men and women at the US$150,000 Sochi Open would be an All-European affairs as the American pair rallied to defeat a team from France here Saturday mid-day on an outside court at Sport Inn near the Black Sea coastline.
Seeded third in the men’s competition, Bourne and Hyden posted a 2-1 (20-22, 21-14, 15-13) quarter-final win in 48 minutes over 13th-seeded Youssef Krou and Edouard Rowlandson of France. It was the fifth meeting on the FIVB World Tour between the two teams with the Americans now holding a 4-1 edge in the series.
COMEBACK WIN
The American were trailing 12-10 in the third and deciding set and the French pair had a swing to make it 13-10, but Bourne and Hyden recovered to win the point. “We had our chance to make it 13-10,” said a dejected Krou after watching one of the other men’s quarter-final matches on center court. “We didn’t take advantage of the opportunity. When you play experience teams like the Americans, you don’t give your opponents any gifts. We did today.”
Earlier Saturday, women’s teams from Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland netted quarter-final wins to advance to the Sochi semi-finals that will be played starting at 4 p.m. (local time) with the matches being televised internationally. Men’s pairs from Italy and Russia captured the other three quarter-finals matches to make it seven European pairs in the semi-finals. The Sochi Open medal matches will be played Sunday evening with the gold medal teams sharing the $11,000 first-place prizes.
OLDEST WINNER
The 43-year old Hyden, the oldest player to win a FIVB World Tour event, and Bourne will play ninth-seeded Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo of Italy in the second men’s semi-final. The Americans have split two matches with Lupo/Nicolai with the Italians winning the last confrontation two seasons ago at the 2014 Klagenfurt Grand Slam in Austria.
FIVB World Tour leaders and fifth-seeded Alex Ranghieri and Adrian Carambula will be challenged by eighth-seeded Konstantin Semenov and Viacheslav Krasilnikov of Russia in the first-semi-final after both teams eliminated pairs from Russia and Canada, respectively. The Italians have defeated Semenov and Krasilnikov twice on the FIVB World Tour at 2015 events in Croatia and Switzerland.
Ranghieri and Carambula advanced to the semi-finals by ousting 27th-seeded qualifiers Yaroslav Koshkarev and Ruslan Bykanov of Russia 2-0 (21-14, 21-17) in a 33-minute match on center court followed by Semenov and Krasilnikov’s 2-0 (21-18, 21-15) quarter-final win in 35 minutes over 11th-seeded Josh Binstock and Sam Schachter of Canada.
UP NEXT
The final four FIVB World Tour qualifying events begin with a stop next week in Turkey (Antalya, 10-15 followed by events in the United States (Cincinnati, May 17-22), Moscow (May 24-29) and Germany (Hamburg, June 7-12). Also counting towards Olympic qualification will be the European championships June 1-5 in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland.