Baden, Austria, May 30, 2013. The weather forecast was not good at all. Unfortunately the meteorologists were right. After some dry hours in the morning, the forecasted rain arrived. Despite these tough conditions, all the athletes showed great performances and fought for every point.
Rimser-Swoboda were the first Austrian beach stars coming into action on this qualification day. But their game against the Czech team Vorlova-Rehackova was shorter than expected. The Austrians did not find their rhythm and lost in two sets 15-21,15-21. Despite the defeat of Rimser-Swoboda, three female teams will represent the host country in the main draw - Doris and Steffi Schwaiger, one of the top favorites, as well as Hansel-Schützenhofer and the wildcard team Klopf-Teufl.
After a long day and three qualification rounds four teams qualified for tomorrow. The two Russian teams Motrich-Prokopeva (21-19, 21-12 vs. Kongshavn-Treland) and Syrtseva-Chaika (22-20, 19-21, 15-13 vs. Goricanec-Hüberli) advanced to the main draw as well as Germans Laboureur-Sude (21-11, 21-19 vs. Braakman-Sinnema) and qualifications top seeded English duo Dampney-Boulton (21-17, 21-11 vs. Lundqvist-Grawender).
On the men’s side, Austrian hopes got dashed in the final qualification round. Thomas Kunert and Lorenz Petutschnig lost to Spanish top stars Herrera-Gavira, after two very good performances earlier today. In their first game Kunert-Petutschnig had no troubles at all. They got an easy two set win against Casadei-Ficosecco (21-18, 21-15). The second round was much closer. Lario-De Amo (ESP) overcame Austrian spectator favourites in a close first set with 21-19, but the youngsters Kunert-Petutschnig returned back, dominating second set with 21-16. In the decisive third set, the Austrian youngsters secured an early four-point leed and used their third match point and advanced to final qualification round, where they face Spanish top stars Herrera-Gavira. The former Baden winners (2009) showed their strength from the very beginning. Kunert-Petutschnig lost against the Spaniards with 18-21 and 12-21, but it is not a shame to lose against multiple World-Tour medalists. Furthermore, Herrera-Gavira will be one of the main opponents for the Austrian top teams Doppler-Horst and Huber-Seidl in the main draw. The wildcard team Wutzl-Leeb will try to surprise tomorrow.
Besides Herrera-Gavira, Polish top seeded Losiak-Kantor (21-16, 19-21, 15-11 vs. Marcos-García), Gunnarsson-Brinkborg (16-21, 21-18, 15-6 vs. Gerson-Prawdzic) from Sweden and last years silver medalists Kotsilianos-Zoupanis (18-21, 21-16, 15-13 vs. Hoyer, A.-Hoyer) from Greece advanced to the main draw.