Laura Ludwig and her partner Louisa Lippmann have reached the round of 16 at the European Beach Volleyball Championships in the Netherlands. The 38-year-old 2016 Olympic champion and the 29-year-old Lippmann won the first knockout round in Arnhem against the Dutch women Brecht Piersma and Wies Berkhuis with 21:16, 21:19.
After announcing her retirement at the disappointing Olympic Games in Paris, the European Championships will be Laura Ludwig’s last continental championship. In the round of 16, last year’s European Championship third-place finishers will face two-time European champions Tina Graudina and Anastaija Samoilova from Latvia.
As winners of Group E ahead of Ludwig/Lippmann, Hamburg’s Svenja Müller and Cinja Tillmann did not need to take the detour via the first knockout round and were already confirmed as participants in the round of 16.
Like Ludwig/Lippmann, Sarah Schneider and Ludwig’s former partner Margareta Kozuch also made it into the round of 16 in Apeldoorn with a 21:19, 21:12 win in the knockout round against the Belgians Sarah Cool and Lisa van den Vonder.
Olympic silver medalists Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler made it straight into the round of the best 16 with their second and third preliminary round victories with a clean sheet.
Ehlers/Wickler continued their upward trend after their successful start to the European Championships. The German champions secured group victory with confident 2-0 victories against the Czech duo Tomas Semerad/Jan Dumek and the Norwegian pairing Hendrik Mol/Mathias Berntsen.
Broadcast: rbb24 Inforadio, 15.08.2024, 20:15
