Qualifiers Thole/Wickler Win Pool Title at Ostrava Four Star

Ostrava Four Star Open

• Ostrava, Czech Republic
• June 19-24, 2018
• Schedule/Results

Six of the eight men’s pool winners were crowned on Thursday before thunderstorm interrupted the action. Eight women’s pool winners punched their tickets to the second elimination round.

Men’s pool winners were:

• Pool A: No. 16 Grzegorz Fijalek/Michal Bryl (Poland)
• Pool B: No. 2 Evandro Goncalves/Vitor Felipe (Brazil)
• Pool C: No. 30 Julius Thole/Clemens Wickler (Germany)
• Pool D: No. 4 Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo (Italy)
• Pool F: No. 11 Janis Smedins/Aleksandrs Samoilovs (Latvia)
• Pool G: No. 10 Oleg Stoyanovskiy/Igor Velichko (Russia)

Fijalek/Bryl went the distance in both of their victories, first topping Dutch pair No. 17 Christian Varenhorst/Jasper Bouter 21-19, 15-21, 16-14 and then besting top seeded Brazilians Alison Cerutti/Andre Loyola 18-21, 23-21, 15-12.

Thole/Wickler and Konstantin Semenov/Ilya Leshukov, who play for the Pool H title on Friday, each advanced through Wednesday’s qualifying matches with two victories.

Still to play in pool title matches are:

• Pool E: No. 5 Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak (Poland) vs. No. 21 Grant O’Gorman/Ben Saxton (Canada)
• Pool H: No. 8 Ondrej Perusic/David Schweiner (Czech Republic) vs. No. 24 Konstantin Semenov/Ilya Leshukov (Russia)

Women’s pool winners were:

• Pool A: No. 16 Joy Stubbe/Marleen van Iersel (Netherlands)
• Pool B: No. 2 Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude (Germany)
• Pool C: No. 3 Maria Antonelli/Carol Solberg Salgado (Brazil)
• Pool D: No. 4 Agatha Bednarczuk/Duda Santos Lisboa (Brazil)
• Pool E: No. 12 Karla Borger/Margareta Kozuch (Germany)
• Pool F: No. 22 Kinga Kolosinska/Katarzyna Kociolek (Poland)
• Pool G: No. 7 Joana Heidrich/Anouk Verge-Depre (Switzerland)
• Pool H: No. 9 Victoria Bieneck/Isabel Schneider (Germany)

Stubbe/van Iersel had to fight through two three-set matches to move on. First up, the Dutch pair bested Lauren Fendrick/Lane Carico 21-17, 16-21, 15-10. After that, the duo moved past top seeded Czech pair Barbora Hermannova/Marketa Slukova 21-16, 20-22, 15-10 to claim the Pool A title.

Kolosinska/Kociolek topped Americans Summer Ross/Sara Hughes 13-21, 21-19, 15-11 to decide the Pool F winner. Ross/Hughes also went three sets in their initial pool match, defeating Latvian qualifiers Anastasija Kravcenoka/Tina Graudina 22-24, 27-25, 17-15.

Bieneck/Schneider defeated Americans Emily Stockman/Kelly Larsen in the Pool H title match, 21-16, 21-12. Stockman/Larsen won their opening match over Brazil’s Taiana Lima/Carol Horta 13-21, 25-23, 15-8.

Other Americans in action in Ostrava are Kerri Walsh Jennings/Nicole Branagh, who play their second Pool B match on Friday. The pair fell to Russia’s Kholomina/Makroguzova 21-18, 21-19 to open the tournament.