28/05/2014 18:45
Rimser and Swoboda win Austria’s country quotas to make qualification round
2014 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Baden Masters
Baden, Austria, May 28, 2014. The 2014 edition of the Baden Masters presented by Sport.Land.NÖ – first stop of this year’s CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – got started on Wednesday afternoon with the women’s country quota matches which were joined by four teams from the host country. Cornelia Rimser and Sabine Swoboda emerged as the winners of two consecutive matches to claim a spot in the qualification that will go underway on Thursday morning.
Rimser and Swoboda opened their campaign playing Nadine and Teresa Strauss, the bronze medalists from last year’s CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championship in Vilnius. It was somehow as if two different generations were battling on court; the Strauss twins were off to a flying start and won the first set by 21-16. However, Rimser and Swoboda fought back by cruising to a 21-18 set win in the second. Strauss/Strauss caught a very promising start in the tie-break and they claimed a 10:6 lead; however, the more experienced Rimser and Swoboda found their way back into the game and managed to flip the charts around. It was a very close end but Rimser and Swoboda were those who had the upper hand by cashing the final 17-15.
The second country quota match turned into an easy task for pre-favorites Elisabeth Klopf and Valerie Teufl. After a relatively close start, they broke away after the technical time-out and wrapped it up at 21-17 leaving no chance to their opponents Eva Fleig and Julia Frühbauer. The second set mirrored the previous one, as Fleig and Frühbauer could not find a way to control the powerful serve displayed by their opponents, so in the end Klopf and Teufl pocketed the 21-16 win and this way also got the right to challenge Rimser and Swoboda for a spot in the qualification round of the tournament.
The last match of the day was surprisingly an easy affair for the experienced Rimser and Swoboda. They got an early lead in the first set as Teufl and Klopf looked disturbed by the wind and could not prevent their opponents from rapidly cruising to the final 21-11. The course of the game did not change also in the second set where Rimser and Swoboda played very strong and cashed a 21-14 set win that propelled them into the qualification round.
On Wednesday some of the local stars who are set to headline this year’s Baden Masters could practice on the centre court. Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst and Xandi Huber/Robin Seidl even played a couple of sets just for fun as they were closely followed by the local media. They all have another day off since their campaign will start only on Friday with the Main Draw. “It feels great to be back in Baden,” two-time European champion Clemens Doppler said. “We are fit and extremely motivated.” Doppler is returning back after tearing his ACL at last year’s European Championship Final in Klagenfurt. Robin Seidl also sounded very confident ahead of the start of the tournament: “We have won silver and bronze here in Baden already, and this year we want gold.”
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