Latvians roar and Dutch dominate

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Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins secured two wins from two games on Thursday. Photocredit: Mike Ranz.

The Lion King and his partner roared their way to two victories from two as the top seeds at the A1 Major Klagenfurt, Latvians Samoilovs/Smedins, made the perfect start to the tournament on the first day of the men’s Pool Play.

Twelve months ago the duo were spraying champagne in celebration with a stunning success on this very spot in Austria when storming to European Championship gold in Klagenfurt.

And the in-form duo, who won bronze at the Gstaad Major, began like a team who mean business with wins over Italian qualifiers Tomatis/Dal Molin and Walkenhorst/Matysik of Germany to strengthen their grip at the top of Pool C.

But they weren’t the only men’s team to impress on Thursday. Dynamic Dutch duo Brouwer/Meeuwsen registered two victories – although one of these came as a result of an injury sustained to Kadziola/Szalankiewicz earlier in the day.

Meanwhile in Pool E, Norwegian pair Sørum/Mol are quietly creeping closer to the elimination phase after a very promising Thursday that saw them surge to two successes, including one hugely impressive win over Brazil’s Álvaro Filho/Vitor Felipe.

At the start of the day all Austrian eyes were focused on Doppler/Horst but all the talk in the end was on young duo Ermacora/Pristauz-Telsingg as they entertained the crowd with some breathtaking beach volleyball and joined in with the fans’ appreciation. Doppler/Horst meanwhile need to up their game on Friday and need to beat Americans Bourne/Hyden to progress to the elimination round.

So it’s all to play for on Friday as the men’s Pool Play comes to a close, while the identity of the women’s semifinalists will also be revealed during the last 16 and quarterfinals matches.

See the court schedule for Friday here and remember you can watch every match on our live stream.