Beach Volleyball
Forrer / Verge-Depre get ahead at Xiamen Open
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Article Thu, Oct 9 2014
Xiamen, China, October 9, 2014. Switzerland’s Isabelle Forrer / Anouk Verge-Depre are enjoying the luxury of ending the first day of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Xiamen Open main draw in top position in their pool after earning two straight-set wins. The Swiss pair first beat qualifiers Laura Bloem / Marloes Wesselink from the Netherlands in their morning match on Xiamen’s Guanyinshan Gold Beach by 2:0 (21-17, 21-16).
“We had some good rallies and some good block-defense and I think that we put pressure on them with our serving. They also made some good serving, but we kept the pressure and that is why we won,” said Verge-Depre.
Their second match was against Poland’s Dorota Strag / Karolina Baran, which they closed quickly and efficiently at 2-0 (21-18, 21-11).
“It was really windy so we tried to play the ball less high so that the wind could not take the ball. That was a bit funny really, but we are happy that we could finally win the game,” said Verge-Depre.
Forrer / Verge-Depre are no strangers on the World Tour but have only made it into the final 16 once this year at the FIVB Stavanger Grand Slam. The Swiss girls will face USA’s Tealle Hunkus / Kendra Vanzwieten in their last Pool F match on Friday.
“Now it is a different situation for us. Normally we are third in the pool, now we are the pool leaders. We knew it was the first day and it was important to win against the lower ranked team in your pool and that is what we did. We did our job and so tomorrow we are going to see what is going to come against the Americans and of course we will try to finish up first in our pool,” said Forrer.
Four more European pairs achieved two victories in the first two legs of pool play - Czech Republic's Martina Bonnerova / Barbora Hermannova in Pool B, Russia's Evgenia Ukolova / Maria Prokopeva and Finland's Taru Lahti / Riikka Lehtonen in Pool G and Austria's Barbara Hansel / Stefanie Schwaiger in Pool H.
Click here for more info on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Xiamen Open.