First round of Russian Championship ended with Ryabova/Chayka triumph 06.07.2010

The final day of the tournament featured men’s and women’s semis and finals. On Sunday there was a nasty turn in the weather at the Riviera beach and the women’s teams contested semis in rain. To begin with Galina Boyko and Ekaterina Rayevskaya took revenge for the defeat in the pool on the duo of Alexandra Moiseyeva/Ekaterina Syrtseva from Leningrad region. The rivals of the first-seeded pair of the tournament were decided in the meet of Irina Chayka/Elizaveta Ryabova and Victoria Rastykus/Daria Yarzutkina. There was no special struggle in the match and Ryabova/Boyko knocked off the rivals in two sets.

The men’s first semi was called a “preliminary” final. The Kaliningrad duo of Likholetov-Romashkin met their old acquaintances Alexey Yutvalin and Andrey Maryshev. This duel meet became the best one of the tournament: bright emotions, beautiful game, struggle, audience support. There was everything in this game. As a result the first-seeded Kaliningrad tandem snatched a victory in the tie-break. In the second semi the audience saw three sets. Konstantin Birlov and Alexey Glagolev were more lucky in the Mytishchi derby. By the way practically all the Sunday matches were tight and took three sets each. In the fight for bronze Yutvalin/Maryshev dropped their first set but managed to rally and win the following two sets.

There was another “come back” in the women’s match for the third place. The Obninsk players took the starting set but Viktoria Rastylus/Daria Yarzutkina failed to secure the advantage. Eventually Alexandra Moiseyeva wins her first trophy after her return to the beach volleyball scene. The Kazan bronze also topped the career of her young partner Ekaterina Syrtseva. As for the final it was a bit of a surprise. The obvious favorite of the gold match was the top-seeded duo of Boyko/Rayevskaya but their young competitors were not discouraged at all. They were not even discouraged by their defeat in the first set of the final match. To start with Chayka/Ryabova swept their rivals with a 21:14 win in the second set and later on they won their first Russian Championship title with a 15:13 score.

“We surely wanted to win but we didn’t expect such a success! It’s very nice and unexpected. We are overwhelmed with emotions and even don’t know how to behave. Our rivals in the final were first-seeded in this tournament. We were all confident that Galya and Katya would win but we didn’t yield after the first set defeat. It’s an amazing feeling!” Irina Chayka and Liza Ryabova said after their win.