Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 13, 2016 – Russia’s Nikita Liamin and Dmitri Barsuk booked their place in the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games quarterfinals with a 2-1 (16-21, 21-14, 15-10) win over Brazil’s Pedro Salgado and Evandro Goncalves at the Copacabana Beach Arena on Saturday.
Here’s what they said after the match…
Nikita Liamin, Russia
“I can’t describe that performance. It just feels great.
“When the crowd cheered for us, it meant a lot for us because the crowd at Copacabana know about the sport and what constitutes good play.”
Dmitri Barsuk, Russia
“I like a challenge and challenging my rivals, so when they cheered for them it felt like a challenge for me and I like this feeling.
“We have helped make history for the Russian team. Nobody has been beyond the round of 16 so we are pleased with what we have achieved.”
Pedro Salgado, Brazil
“Our side-out wasn’t good today. My side-out was really bad, but it wasn’t’ great from the beginning and our blocking service was really good. Second set our side-out was very bad and blocking and serving wasn’t going well any more.
“They played well, they played well. I think we lost to ourselves today. I think they played really good, but they weren’t incredible. I played a really bad side-out so I’m really disappointed with myself.”