Press release

London, Great Britain, August 2, 2012 – World No. 2 Russia cruised to an easy straight-set victory (25-21, 25-15, 25-23) over No. 20 Tunisia in a match of Pool B of the London Olympic Games men’s volleyball tournament on Thursday at Earls Court.

It was the second victory against one loss for Russia while Tunisia suffered their third defeat in a row.

After losing 3-0 to No. 1 Brazil in their previous match of the competition, the team of Vladimir Alekno came back strong and didn’t allow many opportunities to the African opponents until the third set when they relaxed a little and had to come back to seal the victory.

As a team Russia landed 42 of 80 kills for 52.5 percentage of effectiveness and they held advantages in blocks (10-4) and serving aces (3-0).

Maxim Mikhaylov led Russia with 15 points, including two blocks and two aces, followed by Nikolay Apalikov and Sergey Tetyukhin with 9 and 8 points respectively. Tunisia’s Hamza Nagga finished with 14 points and Ismail Moalla had nine.

The first set was very tight as world No.18 ranked Tunisia raised their standard against the world No.2 ranked side. Hamza Nagga, Ismail Moalla and Noureddine Hfaiedh all scored, but Maxim Mikhaylov, Sergey Tetyukhin and Taras Khtey had a little more firepower for Russia, who won the set 25-21.

Russia dominated the second set, with Mikhaylov again leading the way, and Nikolay Apalikov also contributing. They won easily, 25-15.
 
Tunisia fought well in the third set and led for much of the set, with Nagga outstanding. But Mikhaylov was in a different class to the rest, and his point-gathering gave Russia a 25-23 set win.

Unbeaten Russia face USA in the fourth round of preliminary matches on Friday, while Tunisia, who have lost all their matches, meet Germany.