FIVB World Tour Finals
- Rothenbaum Stadium; Hamburg, Germany
- August 15-19, 2018
- Schedule/Results
- Preview
- Men’s Field
Day 1 of the World Tour Finals included eight men’s matches with Poland’s Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak headlining the action with a pair of victories.
The Poles are 2-0 after a pair of sweeps in Pool A, topping 10th-seeded Russians Oleg Stoyanovskiy/Igor Velichko (21-18, 21-16) and fourth-seeded Latvians Janis Smedins/Aleksandrs Samoilovs (21-17, 21-18).
“It was a good start for us, with two big wins,” Losiak said. “Both teams won medals last week in Moscow and are tough opponents. It wasn’t great, we made several mistakes, but the most important is that we won both matches. I think we had good serves in crucial moments and had a good performance in blocking and defending.”
Italy’s Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo won their lone Pool A match of the day, topping Smedins/Samoilovs in tiebreak (16-21, 21-14, 15-10). Germans Julius Thole/Clemens Wickler also have a win under their belt, outdoing Stoyanovskiy/Velichko 21-19, 21-11 to wrap up the day’s action.
Thole/Wickler will battle Nicolai/Lupo to start Day 2 action. Smedins/Samoilovs will look to get into the win column against Stoyanovskiy/Velichko.
In Pool B, top seeded Norwegians Anders Mol/Christian Sorum won their lone contest of the day, handing Poland’s Michal Bryl/Grzegorz Fijalek their first loss (21-18, 21-16). Bryl/Fijalek went 1-1 on the day, starting with a tiebreak victory over Dutch duo Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen (21-16, 19-21, 15-9). Brouwer/Meeuwsen rebounded with a sweep of Spain’s Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira, who went 0-2.
Herrera/Gavira also dropped their opener 34-32, 17-21, 15-12 to Latvia’s Martins Plavins/Edgars Tocs.
Mol/Sorum will look to continue their 20-match win streak in a pair of Thursday matches against Plavins/Tocs and Herrera/Gavira.
Men’s action is set to begin at 4 a.m. ET Thursday with Mol/Sorum vs. Plavins/Tocs.
FIVB World Tour Finals – Men’s Pool Standings Day 1
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