• Two Latvian duets participate in the “King of the Court” final tournament, Mārtiņš Pļaviņš/Mikhail Samoilovs and Edgar Toch/Christian Fokerot. Toch and Fokerot started the tournament in Group C, where they needed to finish among the top three duos in the five-duos competition to immediately enter the semifinals. The fourth and fifth place pairs continue the fight in the elimination round.
• The format of the “King of the Court” tournament envisages a battle in several rounds until the best pair is determined. All rounds start with five pairs, who play three 15-minute games. After each game, the pair with the fewest points is eliminated. A point can be earned by being on the so-called “king” side, where you have to take the serve, but to get to that side, you have to beat your opponents with a serve or an action on the defense.
• After the mistake of the Dutch Christian Warenhorst in the attack, the Latvians were on the side of the “king” after only half a minute. Fokkerot and Toch attacked well enough to get the three points. The Dutch also got three points, but Fokerots, after acting in defense, regained the “king’s” side for the Latvian duo. This time, however, it was not possible to score points. After five and a half minutes of play, four duos had three points each, but home favorites Cherif and Ahmed remained empty.
• In the middle of the game, the Latvian duo returned to the king’s side, with difficulty protecting their place after Toča’s block. The point was followed by a Fokkerot error. Little by little, the Qatari duo also played, also reaching six points. In the last five minutes, Ukrainians Serhiys Popov and Eduards Reznik also managed to regain the lead in the game. Two and a half minutes before the end of the game, Fokerot stood out with an accurate attack on the side of the “king”, but then he was blocked by Reznik. The Ukrainian duo won the game with 19 points, but Toch and Fokerot finished third with five points. US beach volleyball players Chase Frishman and Avery Drost were the first to retire.
• Ukrainians started the second game with five points, while Dutchmen Warenhorst and Immers got four points. After almost four minutes played, Fokerots also tried himself in the blocking position, but this also prevented the Latvian duo from reaching the side of the “king” for the first time. In the next few minutes, Točs stood out with three blocks, but luck was not on Latvian’s side, failing to score a point on the side of the “king” all three times.
• Cherif and Ahmed had two points until then, but the Qatari duo took their tally to six points. Toch took revenge on the Qatari duo with a block, but the Latvians wasted another opportunity on the “king’s” side. In the last three minutes, Točs and Fokerots were once again on the “king’s” side, but they ended the game without points, ending up in the elimination round, where Mārtiņš Pļaviņš and Mihails Samoilovs also ended up after the group A games. Both Latvian duets and two other duets will fight for a place in the semi-finals on Thursday, at 20:30.
• “This is Latvian style. Płaviņš just did the same. We had many opportunities, but we did not learn to use them. We made unnecessary mistakes. Many teams have been training outside for a long time, this is only the second day for us. The first game was good for us, but we couldn’t show the same in the second. It was a very good game in defense, but not in attack. This one is missing a bit, but nothing bad,” Toch said after the exit.
