Rio de Janeiro, August 11, 2016 – Russia’s Ekaterina Birlova and Evgenia Ukolova booked their place in the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games round of 16 with a 2-1 (21-19, 12-21, 15-10) victory over the Czech Republic’s Marketa Slukova and Barbara Hermannova in the lucky loser round at Copacabana Beach Arena on Thursday.
The win sets up a round of 16 clash against Spain’s Elsa Baquerizo and Liliana Fernandez.
Here’s what they said after the match…
Ekaterina Birlova, Russia
“We are happy that we can play one more game. I think it's good for all athletes, especially in the Olympic Games, it's a new experience. I think we can make happy our fans, our family, because they are all watching our games in Russia. We are just now thinking about the next one and trying to do our best in the next.”
Marketa Slukova, Czech Republic
“It's a little bitter-sweet. On one hand, we are very, very proud that we even made it to the Olympics, that we made it out of the pool.
“I think already this is a huge achievement and a dream of every athlete. On the other hand, we just lost our game and we had our chances which we didn't grab and this is always very disappointing and this is always what hurts a little.”