Beach Volleyball: Cottafava-Nicolai at the World Cup, Benzi and Bonifazi the surprise

If Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafava, certain of qualifying for the round of 32 and that tomorrow they will play for first place in the group, Davide Benzi and Carlo Bonifazi are the heroes of the third day of the Beach World Cup underway at the Foro Italico in Rome. The Italian underdogs beat the Chileans Aravena-Droguett 2-0 in the second match of the group and tomorrow they will take the field to close the pool in second place. After the defeat against the Olympic champions Mol-Sorum on their debut, the couple born on the Genoa-Rome axis thrilled the Roman center with a very high level performance, topped off by 4 walls, many defenses and an often incisive serve.

World emotion

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“For a Roman like me – Bonifazi says – winning a World Cup match in front of a home crowd is wonderful. For this I was angry yesterday after the defeat against Mol-Sorum. We played great today and it was exciting to feel the warmth of the crowd. We perfectly managed the wind, which was very strong at times, and we made an excellent race plan with our coach Gianni Mascagna ”. Now the ambitions of the Italian couple, who are trying to put some points in the farmhouse to give substance to a new international journey, are also to beat the Dutch Luini-Penninga (also overwhelmed by the Olympic champions Mol-Sorum) and bring at home a second place that would allow to avoid the lucky loser round and have a draw for the knockout phase on the most favorable card. “That would be a great thing. Now, however, we must first recover our energy and then concentrate on tomorrow morning’s race ”.

Come on

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And tomorrow Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafava will also close the group who, after the easy victory (2-0: 21-10, 21-10) against the Thai Surin-Banlue which is worth the mathematical qualification to the round of 32, will play for first place in the group K against the Americans Tri Bourne and Travor Crabb. Definitely less happy Jakob Windisch and Gianluca Dal Corso, beaten 2-0 (21-13, 24-22) by the Austrians Seidl-Waller. A race that started uphill for the blue, good at regaining pace in the second part of the first set and taking advantage of the start of the second set. In the final, however, the return of the Austrians, good at canceling four set balls and closing the match in their favor.

Menegatti and Gottardi second

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Marta Menegatti and Valentina Gottardi close the group in second place and qualify by right for the knockout phase, who will return to the field on Wednesday for the round of 32. The blues beat the Ecuadorians Ariana-Karelys 2-0 in the last round and climbed to two wins like the Spanish Carro-Lobato and the Americans Kolinske-Hughes. In cases like this, the regulation requires the points quotient to be calculated in direct clashes and the blue are second behind the Americans who had beaten at the debut. Valentina Calì and Margherita Tega greeted the World Cup, losing 2-1 (19-21, 21-16, 15-12) against the Swiss Bobner-Vergé Dépré after going ahead by one set and having canceled two match point at the tie break.

Viki’s tears

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The blue day, however, had begun with bad news. After a great start to the competition of the sisters Viktoria and Reka Orsi Toth, with a convincing game and the victory of the first set against the German quoted Muller-Tillman, Viktoria’s left knee injury came after a wall jump (yes fears a long stop), which forced the Italian couple to forfeit the score of 1-1 in the second set and abandon the match. Soon after came a defeat for Bianchin-Scampoli, beaten 2-0 (21-18, 21-12) against the Polish Wojtasik-Kociolek. After going under in the first set and having recovered a break of 6 points, the blues made some mistakes in the final and gave up the partial that gave way to the Polish success.

The races of tomorrow

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Tomorrow the group will close for the last blue pairs. The day opens at 10 am Benzi-Bonifazi against the Dutch Luini-Penninga. Immediately after, still on the central like all the Italian matches, it will be the turn of Windisch-Dal Corso against the Poles Kantor-Rudol. Italy-Poland again at 12 for the match between Lupo-Ranghieri and Bryl-Losiak. In the afternoon, at 4 pm, the match between Carambula-Rossi and Bruno-Saymon for the first place in the group. In all likelihood, the challenge scheduled between the Orsi Toth sisters and the Thai Worapeerachayakorn-Naraphornrapat will not be played at 7 pm due to the forfeit due to injury of the blue. They will close the evening at 21 Scampoli-Bianchin against the Germans Borger-Sude and Nicolai-Cottafava against the Americans Crabb-Bourne.