Men's beach volleyball team go down against Switzerland
The Estonian men's beach volleyball duo of Kusti Nõlvak and Mart Tiisaar will have to wait to another day to potentially progress to the European Championships knockout round in Munich, Germany, after losing to Switzerland 2:0 (21:18, 27:25) on Wednesday.
Victory over the Swiss pair of Marco Krattiger and Florain Breeri would have guaranteed progression from the group stage; the top three from each of the eight groups toes through, while Nõlvak and Tiisaar overcame Jyrky Nurminen and Santeri Siren (Finland) 2:0 in the opening game.
Krattiger and Breeri had won their first match 2:0 as well, however, against Italy.
Early on in Wednesday's clash, Estonia went 2:0 up, though the Swiss had equalized six minutes later and while Nõlvak and Tiisaar soon drew ahead to 10:7, fortune swung the other way later on as Krattiger and Breeri got to 14:13, and while things were fairly evenly matched thereafter, the Swiss team held on to win the game 21:18.
In game two, there was even less to separate the two pairs and the gap in points was never higher than two, but with Krattiger and Breeri more confident at decisive moments, they were able to take the game 2/.25 and with it the match.
Nõlvak and Tiisaar face Daniele Lupo and Alex Ranghier of Italy next, with a chance of going through to the knockout rounds still to play for.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
