05/08/2015 20:42
Great opening day for host nation at Biel/Bienne Masters
2015 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Biel/Bienne Masters
Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, August 5, 2015. Promising Swiss youngster Dunja Gerson (pictured) delighted a huge home crowd on the shores of Lake Biel securing her first-ever Main Draw appearance at an international senior tournament, as her countrymen Nico Beeler/Alexei Strasser also caught a good start on the opening day of the Biel/Bienne Masters, third stop of this year’s CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship.
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The 2015 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – Biel/Bienne Masters is being covered extensively also on Twitter and Facebook with the official hashtags being #EuroBeachVolley and #Beachmania
With the sun-kissed sand providing the perfect stage where to perform and light gleaming on the waters of Lake Biel in the morning, the scenery was all but set for the opening day of the eagerly-awaited 2015 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – Biel/Bienne Masters.
For the host nation in particular it was a day to remember: Switzerland’s promising young duo Dunja Gerson/Tanya Guerra Arias-Schmocker rallied superbly in fixtures against difficult opponents such as France’s Laura Longuet/Alexandra Jupiter and Austria’s Valerie Teufl/Bianca Zass to find themselves in the Main Draw and may well fancy their chances. For youngster Dunja Gerson, daughter of Swiss Volleyball legend Marc Gerson and sister of Swiss Beach Volleyball champion Mirco, at the tender age of 19 this is her first ever appearance in a Main Draw of a senior tournament. This feat shadows last year’s achievement when U20 European champions Nina Betschart and Nicole Eiholzer also made the Main Draw in their first ever senior competition. This happened only ten months before Nina and Nicole went on to win gold at the Baku 2015 European Games. Switzerland therefore has good reasons to dream about the future prospects of Dunja Gerson.
Elsewhere, Switzerland’s tandem Nico Beeler/Alexei Strasser also gave the home crowd something to cheer about with an incredible performance in their two matches. This is even more striking when one considers that this was their fourth game within 24 hours having contested the final of the Swiss National Tour in Basel on August 4. With more adequate rest and preparation they are sure to be a handful for anyone in the Main Draw.
Furthermore in the men’s competition, Ukrainian duo Illia Kovalov/Oleh Plotnytskyi convincingly claimed both of their matches to reach the Main Draw. Austrian’s Peter Eglseer/Daniel Müllner and the Polish team of Maciej Kosiak/Maciej Rudol also made it through the qualification round.
In the women’s tournament, Germany’s Victoria Bieneck/Julia Grossner, Spain’s Ester Ribera/Amaranta Fernandez and Norway’s Cindy Treland/Oda Johanne Ulveseth are the other teams who made it through to the Main Draw.
After a fantastic opening day in Biel/Bienne, the quality on the court shows no sign of relenting. But with the big favourites raring to go in the Main Draw and more games on the way in the next few days, the best is certainly yet to come.
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