The Klinger sisters Dorina and Ronja of Austria are among the four women’s teams that won their pools on Friday and advanced straight to the quarterfinals of the first Sofia 1-star stop of the 2021 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
The 23-year-old Dorina and the 20-year-old Ronja started their campaign in Bulgaria with a 2-0 (21-13, 21-14) win against the home team of Asya Dinova and Slavina Koleva. They secured the top spot of pool C with another two-set (22-20, 21-18) victory, this one over the Dutch duo of Annemieke Driessen and Iris Reinders.
Ieva Dumbauskaite and Gerda Grudzinskaite also won their pool without dropping sets as the Lithuanians finished atop of group A. They started off with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-17) triumph against Ukraine’s Svitlana Baburina/Maryna Hladun and followed it up with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) victory against top-seeded Farida El Askalany and Doaa Elghobashy of Egypt.
The other two undefeated teams on the first day of the main draw in Sofia were USA’s qualifiers Corinne Quiggle and Allie Wheeler and Polish Aleksandra Gromadowska and Kinga Legieta. The four pool winners advanced directly to the quarterfinals while the second and third-placed tandems in each group will play in Saturday’s Round of 12.
In the men’s tournament, teams only played the first of their two pool play matches on Friday and Iran and Russia were the two countries that had multiple teams winning on the first day of the main draw.
Top-seeded Iranians Bahman Salemi and Arash Vakili posted a 2-0 (21-11, 21-11) victory over Bulgarians Dimitar Kalchev and Georgi Stoyanov while their compatriots Abolhamed Mirzaali and Rahman Raoufi downed another home team, the one of Georgi Bratoev and Miroslav Gradinarov, also in two sets (21-9, 21-19).
Third-seeded Russians Petr Bakhnar and Valeriy Samoday also stated on the right foot with a 2-0 (21-12, 21-14) triumph against Bulgaria’s Hristo Kolev and Nikolay Kostov. Maksim Hudyakov and Aleksandr Kramarenko had a tighter match, but also prevailed against Serbian qualifiers Lazar Kolaric and Milos Milic in two sets (21-16, 21-19).
Pool play for the men will be concluded on Saturday, when the elimination round is also set to start in Sofia.
