Americans Stockman/Larsen Move on to Ostrava 4-Star Main Draw

Ostrava Four Star Open

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

After two rounds of qualification play, the 32-team Main Draw fields are set for the Ostrava Four Star Open.

Thirty-two men’s teams and 30 women’s teams competed to be among eight teams per gender to make it through to the main draw.

On the women’s side, Americans Emily Stockman/Kelley Larsen were among the eight teams to move on, having to play just one match to earn their spot after receiving a bye to the second round. The No. 2  duo among the qualifiers defeated Spain’s Angela Lobato/Amaranta Fernandez Navarro in straight sets (22-20, 21-14) to advance to Thursday’s pool play round.

The other seven teams that moved on were:

• No. 1 Kim Behrens/Sandra Ittlinger (Germany)
• No. 9 Azusa Futami/Akiko Hasegawa (Japan)
• No. 5 Andrea Strbova/Natalia Dubovcova (Slovakia)
• No. 4 Anastasija Kravcenoka/Tina Graudina (Latvia)
• No. 3 Liliana Fernandez Steiner/Elsa Baquerizo McMillan (Spain)
• No. 22 Aleksandra Wachowicz/Jagoda Gruszczynska (Poland)
• No. 7 Taina Silva Bigi/Victoria Lopes Pereira Tosta (Brazil)

Top seeded qualifiers Behrens/Ittlinger advanced with a tiebreak win of Thailand’s Rumpaipruet Numwong/Khanittha Hongpak (21-11, 19-21, 15-13).

Four other teams moved on after three-set efforts. Among the group, Futami/Hasegawa went the distance twice on Wednesday. First, the Japanese duo bested Eliska Davidova/Sara Olivova (Czech Republic), 21-14, 21-23, 15-11. Next up, the team topped Laura Caluori/Dunja Gerson (Switzerland) after dropping Set 1 (15-21, 22-20, 15-8).

The eight teams will join a main draw including top seeded Barbora Hermannova/Marketa Slukova (Czech Republic), No. 6 Sara Hughes/Summer Ross (USA) and two other American pairs (No. 17 Lauren Fendrick/Lane Carico, No. 18 Kerri Walsh Jennings/Nicole Branagh). Five Brazilian duos also are among the field.

Advancing on the men’s side were:

• Martin Ermacora/Moritz Pristauz (Austria)
• Arnas Rumsevicius/Lukas Kazdailis (Lithuania)
• Marco Grimalt/Esteban Grimalt (Chile)
• Dirk Boehle/Steven van de Velde (Netherlands)
• Julius Thole/Clemens Wickler (Germany)
• Konstantin Semenov/Ilya Leshukov (Russia)
• Thiago Santos Barbosa/George Wanderley (Brazil)
• Adrian Heidrich/Mirco Gerson (Switzerland)

Five of the 16 first round matches went to tiebreak, while seven of the eight second round matches went the distance.

Grimalt/Grimalt and Boehle/van de Velde played two three-set affairs apiece, with both pairs dropping the opening stanza of each match.

The men’s main draw includes top seeded Alison Cerutti/Andre Loyola and No. 2 Evandro Goncalves/Vitor Felipe of Brazil and No. 3 Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands. There are no American men’s pairs remaining in the tournament.

Two American men’s teams were among the 32 qualifiers vying for a spot in the main draw – Trevor Crabb/John Mayer and Bill Kolinske/Miles Evans.

Crabb/Mayer won via tiebreak in the opening round (25-27, 21-16, 15-10) over the Czech Republic’s Jakub Gala/David Kufa, but fell to Dutch pair Boehle/van de Velde (14-21, 22-20, 15-13) in Round 2 to end their stay in Ostrava.

Kolinske/Evans fell in straight sets in their opening match against Thole/Wickler (21-11, 21-16).