2017-08-26 11:21:00 CET
Vienna frustration motivation for Paolo
Italians want to end the season on a high
Paolo Nicolai is focused on winning gold in Hamburg
Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo want to make up for their World Championship failure by taking gold at the Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals presented by Vodafone.
The Italians could only manage a 17th place in Vienna two weeks ago after crashing out to Canadians Sam Pedlow and Sam Schachter.
But a comeback victory over Spain’s experienced Herrera/Gavira in the first quarterfinal here on Saturday got them one step closer to realizing their dream of gold in Germany.
“The only tournament we didn’t play so well was in Vienna,” Paolo said after their 19-21, 21-14, 15-11 win on the Red Bull Beach Arena. “We had a good pool play performance but then in the single elimination there was too much pressure. We don’t know what happened but we went out too early and now we want to show everyone how we can play.
“It’s important to do well in the World Tour Finals and two reach the final four is great. This is one of the main tournaments on the tour and it would be really good to end a good season with a medal.
“It’s a big goal for us and we want to reach the top.”
The European champions and last summer’s Olympic silver medalists will face the winner of Doppler/Horst of Austria and Evandro/Andre of Brazil in the semifinal on Sunday – a game you can watch live on BeachStream. Click here to sign up for free!
