Zenit won 94:55 in the first friendly match against Erokspor.
Blue-whites continue their systematic preparation for the upcoming 2024/25 season. The team is getting physically fit, the players are getting fit and practising key moments. At this stage, the level of the opponent is not really important, as the athletes are training under high loads.
Zenit's opponent in two friendlies in Turkey was local Erokspor. The team plays in the Turkish Basketball League (TBL).
Egor Ryzhov and Denis Zakharov told how the training camp is going and shared their emotions after the victory in the friendly match.
Egor Ryzhov, Zenit center:
What are my impressions of the preparation stage in Turkey? This is my first training camp with the main team. I'm very happy to be here. Everything is going well, ideal conditions, we are training. If we talk about the match against Erokspor, the beginning of the meeting could seem a bit tense. But then we confidently led in the score and just consistently showed a good game. In general, the preparation goes according to the plan. We train a lot: in the gym, on the court, we play friendlies and try to prepare for the games to the maximum. Do I feel tired already? No, after the summer I have a lot of energy and readiness to show myself.
Denis Zakharov, Zenit guard:
At the pre-season training camp we continue to get to know each other more and more, we have changed the environment a little bit. We train every day. The weather is good, but, of course, we don't have much time to enjoy the local views. Did Erokspor surprise us and is this team strong? We are not looking at the level of our opponents yet, we are trying to find our game, our chemistry, our game moments, to hone what we go through in training. That's why we concentrate more on ourselves. After the first weeks I can say about the preparation for the season that the game with Tambov showed some of our mistakes. Every day we are progressing, we try to make fewer and fewer mistakes and strive to reach the peak of form. Is fatigue already accumulated? There is a little bit, but I think the preseason is just to play on this fatigue, and in the season it will be easier.
During the training camp in Turkey Xavi Pascual's team will have one more meeting against Erokspor, which will be held on 30 August at 3:30 PM
