Nikolov: "I'm really, really sorry that I lost."

The quarterfinals of the Coppa Italia were held in the Italian men's volleyball league Serie A, and on Thursday, December 29th (local time), Ishikawa Yuki's Milan team, who finished the first half of the league in 7th place, played away against Roubaix Civitanova (hereinafter Roubaix), who were in 2nd place, and won 3-1 (18-25, 25-21, 25-18, 25-21).

After the race, Roubaix rider Aleksandar Nikolov gave us some comments.

-Looking back on today's game, what do you think?

Nikolov: It was a tough match. From the second set, my opponent's serve got much better and we didn't get many chances. On the other hand, we started off poorly. I'm really sorry that we lost this time.

Why do you think this change in trends has occurred?

Nikolov: My serve got worse, and I can't explain exactly how it got worse, but it allowed my opponents to attack better, and it allowed them to attack with confidence even on bad balls. Kudos to them.

-This is your first season in Italy. How is it going so far?

Nikolov: It's a lot of fun. It's very challenging, but it's mostly fun. It's my first year, so every gym and every trip is new to me, so I'm having a lot of fun.

- You are very young but you are already showing your talent, and some say you will become a player like fellow Bulgarian player Kaziski. What are your goals as a player?

Nikolov: Of course I want to be like the players you mentioned. I want to be the best player, the best player for me. So I'm going to keep going and hopefully in the next few years I can become like that.

- Your father (Vladimir Nikolov) used to play in the Japanese league (for Toray in the 2006/07 season). Were you living in Japan at that time?

Nikolov: Yes, my father played in Japan so I lived there for a year.

-Do you remember what happened then?

Nikolov: I don't remember. I was very young, maybe 3 or 4 years old. I went to kindergarten. So I don't remember anything.

-Would you like to play in the Japanese league in the future?

Nikolov: It will definitely be interesting to play in Japan, because the Japanese league is different from any other league. But I don't know yet. Maybe we'll meet in Japan in the future.

Photo: Author