Rio de Janeiro, August 6, 2016 – Italy’s Alex Ranghieri and Adrian Carambula began their Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games campaign with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-13) victory over Austria’s Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst at the Copacabana Beach Arena on Saturday.
Here’s what they said after the match….
Alex Ranghieri, Italy
“We were expecting to dominate the match and we did. We were good at controlling the nerves in the beginning of the match. Or it was not the nerves – it was that start when we entered the court our legs started to shake. But then we managed (to control) and we went strong from the start.
“I just thought ‘look at that, Renzi (Matteo, Italian Prime Minister) is here’. He wished us good luck. We were really lucky that he was here to watch us because beach volleyball is a sport that is not in the limelight in Italy, so anything that can help it become more popular is good.”
Clemens Doppler, Austria
“It didn’t work out the way we thought it would work out. Today was very difficult to play. There was never constant wind.
“Today, I don’t know if you could see it on the screen, but it was always turning. There was never a good side for us and with our jump serve we need a little bit of wind against us, and we didn’t have that today.