Two interesting clashes between Swiss and German women’s pairs highlighted the start of the beach volleyball competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Saturday. Both of them ended after three sets of play in favour of the Swiss duos.
Tanja Huberli and Nina Betschart emerged with a narrow 2-1 (23-25, 22-20, 16-14) comeback victory over defending Olympic champion Laura Ludwig and her teammate Margareta Kozuch. Each of the three sets was pushed to overtime and decided by the narrowest of margins. The Germans were the first to reach match point in the tiebreak, but the Swiss made the homerun on three consecutive points.
Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Heidrich ran over Germany’s Julia Sude and Karla Borger in their first set, but after reaching a double match point in the second, they allowed a German comeback to level the score. The third set was once again a one-sided affair as Verge-Depre and Heidrich cruised on to close the match at 2-1 (21-8, 21-23, 15-6).
A total of six women’s and four men’s fixtures from the pool phase were on the programme of the first competition day.
Today’s recap of the women’s competition
Today’s recap of the men’s competition
Quick links:
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Schedule and results
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Beach volleyball
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour
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