Aleksandrs Samoilovs, Latvia – (on two 17ths coming into World Championships) “We have to enjoy playing games and get our confidence back. It’s very important in the first opening game because we haven’t seen that Venezuelan team. When you play a team you have never seen, you can’t make a plan so you have to improvise during the game. It’s hard because preparing for the World Championships they have a bunch of our games and are able to analyze us."
Janis Smedins, Latvia – “We have a lot of experience but not good results for us. We (Latvia) medaled in the Olympic Games, the European Championships, but not the World Championships. So that’s our national goal – to get a medal in the World Championships… just like everyone else. The Google didn’t help us; last five days I Googled them and nothing, just names and photo, nothing about how they play. The wind makes like a circle, and you can make a lot of mistakes with the serve. I changed my serve; at first I had a three-step approach but then with the wind I did a one-step serve and I had less mistakes and more points.”