Aalsmeer, Netherlands, October 28, 2017 – Italy’s Marco Caminati and Enrico Rossi will meet Ukraine’s Sergiy Popov and Oleksii Denin in the first of two men’s semifinals of the Aalsmeer one-star tournament on the 2018 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour on Sunday. Next on the sand court at The Beach Indoor Center, Turkey’s Hasan Huseyin Mermer and Murat Giginoglu and USA’s William Kolinske and Miles Evans will battle it out for the remaining vacancy in the gold medal match.
Caminati and Rossi are the highest seeded team in the tournament's top four. The eighth-seeded Italians managed to deliver a quarterfinal upset of the top-seeded Frenchmen Maxime Thiercy and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat, achieving a come-from-behind 2-1 (15-21, 21-17, 15-9) victory.
Popov and Denin also emerged as semifinalists after a tie-breaker win in the quarters. The Ukrainians took 49 minutes to triumph with a 2-1 (21-17, 16-21, 16-14) victory over the highest seeded home team - Tom van Steenis and Ruben Penninga.
The other two Dutch pairs also lost their quarterfinals on Saturday, but in straight sets. Mermer and Giginoglu shut out Dirk Boehle and Steven van de Velde on the way to a 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) win. Kolinske and Evans cruised to a 2-0 (21-12, 21-13) victory over Jannes van der Ham and Sven Vismans.
Sunday’s competition day will start at 10:30 local time. The men’s bronze medal is scheduled for 15:00, followed by the big final at 16:00.