Today is the start of Challenger in Pristina. Challenger is providing tickets for Masters, main tournaments on the World Tour. There is no doubt that we can expect good 3×3 basketball in the upcoming two days.
The last challenger in Bordeaux, France was won by the Belgian team Antwerp which was their first title in the season. The qualifications will be played on Saturday where three teams will compete for one spot in the group stage. Challenger in Kosovo will have four groups with three teams.
On the same day, each team played against every other team in the group and the two first-placed teams will progress to the quarterfinals stage. Quarterfinals, semifinals, game for the third place, and final game are scheduled to be played on Sunday, 17th July.
Antwerp is considered as main favorite and no.1 seed in the competition. Thibaut Vervoort and Caspar Augustijnen are a great duo in the Belgian team and it will be very difficult to beat them this weekend.
The second seed is Amsterdam from Netherland who finished second-placed at Challenger in Novi Sad one and a half months ago. Dimeo van der Horst and Maksim Kovacevic, Amsterdam’s players, are capable of making an extreme show.
The no. 3 seed is Jeddah, Saudi Arabian team, who finished in the quarterfinals in last week’s challenger in Hamburg. They put big faith in Darius Tarvydas, a Lithuanian star.
It’s worth mentioning the presence of Stefan Stojacic aka Mr. Robot in this tournament. Stefan plays for Vienna, an Austrian club, and his good form this weekend can cause big upsets and crashes of favorites. We should also put attention to the performances of three Mongolian stars: Anand Ariunbold, Gan-Erdene Gantsolmon, and Delgernyam Davaasambuu.
This is the fifth Challenger this season and it’s going to enable two-first placed teams to participate at the fifth station in this season’s World Tour – Debrecen.
source: fiba.basketball
Add Comment