The Austrians are transforming lofty expectations into healthy pressure
Published 08:09, 08 Nov 2023
Austria’s Timo Hammarberg & Tim Berger are making the positive push in converting pressure into something constructive in their 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championship title campaign.
As one of the favorites in the men’s tournament, they take pressure as something that will keep them on their toes, and a driving mechanism for them to perform well throughout the tournament.
“We just play because it’s fun here. We are happy that so many people came to watch our game. Of course, there’s a little bit of pressure, but I think that pushes us,” Berger said.
“I think we can deal with it well, like the way we have dealt with pressure in the last three years. So it’s OK. And we also have a hard group, so we cannot sleep.”
They had their way in their first main draw match, beating Brazil’s Pedro Augusto Sousa De Oliveira & Henrique Chaboim de Barros 2-0 (21-11, 21-17), but they are not taking any teams lightly at this point.
“We are very happy that the first game ended good for us. It was pretty hot, but I think we could acclimatize pretty good. We are excited for the next two matches,” Hammarberg said.
“We haven’t seen them a lot before since we only play in Europe now. We watched some videos from last year and tried to go with the flow, enjoy the experience and just play.”
Hammarberg shared his thoughts on the level of play in the competition and mentioned France’s Arthur Canet and Teo Rotar as their toughest opponents and top contenders for the world title.
“We know our French opponents Canet/Rotar. We played them in the European final twice – one time we won and another time we lost. They are on our level, and they are tough opponents,” the 19-year-old blocker said.
“Of course, there’s the Latvian guys. Also, really tough opponents are Brazil, Argentina and Chile. I think there are a lot of good games here. The level is very high.”
Last October, Hammarberg and the 18-year-old Berger captured the Beach Pro Tour Mallorca Futures gold. They have also collected three age-group continental medals, including the 2021 U18 bronze, 2022 U20 gold and the 2023 U23 silver.
“We will take it game by game. To be honest, level is very high. Be 100% in every game and we will see what happens,” Berger ended.
