The Polish topped Pool A with a victory over Thole/Wickler

• Facebook
• Twitter

Kantor and Losiak won three of their four matches in Hamburg

Bartosz Losiak and Piotr Kantor knew exactly what they needed to book their places in to the semifinals of the he FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals Hamburg 2018 presented by Vodafone and they just went for it.

The Polish faced the hottest team of the first two days of the tournament, Germans Julius Thole and Clemens Wickler, and the horde of supporters behind them at the Red Bull Beach Arena and pulled out a comfortable two-set victory (21-15, 21-15). The result granted them the top in Pool A and a straight pass to Saturday’s semifinals.

“I think it was our best game in the tournament,” Losiak commented. “We were strong and aggressive from the start until the end of the match. That was the key. It was important to finish first. I hope we can continue playing at the same rhythm tomorrow.”

“Our goal is always to win gold, but bringing any medal home would be great. We were fifth in 2016 and fourth in 2017 and we’ll fight with everything we have to change that this year.”

The Polish will wait for the conclusion of pool play to know their next opponents, which will be either Italy’s Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai or the second-placed team on Pool B.

“Everything went well for us today,” Kantor added. “Our side out was solid, we communicated well and our blocking-defense was good too. We now wait to see who we’re playing in the semifinal and we’ll be ready for it.”

For Wickler and Thole, who will play the third-placed team on Pool B in the quarterfinals, the goal is to take the setback as lightly as possible and just move on.

“We knew it would be hard,” Wickler explained. “They are one of the best teams out there and they have so many options in their offense. It’s sad that we couldn’t play at our best and we didn’t execute our tactics well. But it won’t be hard to get this result behind us and focus on the next game.”

That's some serious net patrolling from @bvuilleumier 🙌 Watch all of day 3 of #HamburgFinals on BeachStream [link in bio] @vodafone_de @hamburg_de @redbullgermany

878 Likes, 7 Comments - Beach Volleyball Major Series (@beachmajorseries) on Instagram: "That's some serious net patrolling from @bvuilleumier 🙌 Watch all of day 3 of #HamburgFinals on..."