Kyoto, Japan, June 26, 2016 – Serbia defeated Thailand 3-0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-20) in the FIVB World Grand Prix at Shimazu Arena in Kyoto on Sunday.
Zoran Terzic, Serbia, coach: If we talk about results in this tournament, we should be happy and satisfied. We won and took first place, having lost all three games in the first weekend and getting two wins in the second before getting three wins here. We had some up and downs but against very strong teams, especially teams that play similar volleyball to us, we play much better. Against teams like Thailand and Japan we have a lot of problems, partly because of the way they play and also because of motivation. But that’s normal at this point in time; the girls just want to go home now and rest a little bit after these three tournaments before we continue our preparations for the Olympic Games.
Brankica Mihajlovic, Serbia, player: I think we should play much better than we did today. We got the win in the end but for sure we have some points we need to make better. It’s always interesting to play against these types of teams. They are different from European teams and were always pushing us to the end and they fought good. I hope in the end we are going to be more focused.It’s been a difficult two weeks. We’ve played five games of five sets, but I think maybe it’s good preparation for the Olympic Games. But it’s good that we’ve been able to use all the players so we shouldn’t be so tired.
Danai Sriwacharamaytakul, Thailand, coach: Serbia are very tall and played high quality volleyball. Their blocking, digging, counter-spiking and all their skills were much higher than our team, so it was hard to overcome them. In the match, I think the players learned a lot of things from Serbia, so in that respect it was good. We also found some things we need to improve on, so we will work on those for the Finals in Bangkok.
Wilavan Apinyapong, Thailand, captain: We could get a lot of experience from this game and that is very important for our team. I believe that our team has been getting better and better during this World Grand Prix tournament. Today, we lost concentration at the end of the sets and that’s why we couldn’t win any sets in the match. Overall, Serbia were very strong. Now, we want to try our best in the Finals in Bangkok.