News 20/04/2016 Fuzhou Open Swiss teams topple opponents Fuzhou, China, April 20, 2016 – Switzerland’s Eiholzer Nicole and Gerson Dunja topple top seeded qualifiers Victoria Bieneck and Julia Großner from Germany at the 2016 FIVB Fuzhou Open.An emotional Eiholzer/Gerson had to take a moment to realise their achievement after beating the German pair in a turnaround match 2-1 (18-21, 21-13, 15-12).“It was good because we knew we had to play really good that we can beat them and we had to really focus on our things and concentrate,” said Eiholzer.“It’s difficult for us because we’re a new team and it’s the third tournament we played together and it’s my first main draw. I want to cry,” said Gerson. “I think they don’t really know how we play as we’re kind of new and we played a lot of different things, not always the same and we didn’t have that much pressure because actually they would have to win, so we really could enjoy the game and try to play our best,” said Eiholzer.Eiholzer/Gerson had started the day as they meant to go on, beating Serbia’s Matic Milena and Milosevic Marija 2-0 (21-13, 21- 18). “It was a really early match, 8:00am, we tried to stay calm in the beginning of the set, to try to push us in the end and not think it’s just 7-7 we should be in front, just play solidly every point,” said Eiholzer.Betschart/Hüberli progress Eiholzer/Gerson are joined in the main draw by fellow Swiss players Nina Betschart and Tanja Hüberli. Betschart/Hüberli played Katharina Schützenhöfer/Lena Plesiutschnig from Austria in their only match of the day after earning a bye in the first round. The Austrian team came out strongly leaving the Betschart/Hüberli to play catch up, but the Swiss pair gained momentum in the closing stages to secure the win and a main draw position, 2-1 (24-22, 18-21, 15-8).“I’m so tired it was a hard game and I was struggling in pass and set, and she (Betschart) had some hard times to attack them. They pulled a lot off the net. The first set we had a good comeback and we were happy to win and in the second set we did so many mistakes, so it was our mistake that we lost. I think it was a good comeback in the third after we were down 7-5. We kept calm and kept fighting. It was an important win for us, it was the first time we played a qualification together so we’re really happy to move to the main draw hotel now,” said Hüberli.Switzerland’s Nina Betschart and Tanja Hüberli “I think now we have nothing to lose anymore, we wanted to do it better than last week in Xiamen, we won the first and then we lost the next three in really close games so we have no idea, let’s see what our group will be and just have fun and play,” said Hüberli.Betschart and Hüberli join forces for the first time in the 2016 season. “It’s pretty cool, we have a lot of fun together. I think we built some good things over the winter and now we hope that we get better with every game,” said Betschart.With both Eiholzer/Gerson and Betschart/Hüberli progressing into the main draw, Switzerland now have four female teams in contention in Fuzhou including Isabelle Forrer/Anouk Vergé-Dépré and Joana Heidrich/Nadine Zumkehr.Women’s main draw pool play will begin on Thursday April 21 where teams aim for the knock-out stages. The gold medal teams in each gender at the FIVB Fuzhou Open will each split $11,000, the silver $8,000, the bronze $6,000 and fourth place $4,500. The men’s medal matches will be held on Saturday and the women’s medal matches will be held on Sunday. Print this Page News {{item.LocalShortDate}} {{item.Title}} All the News