Maiden gold medal victory for Dutch pair at Shanghai Open – Beach Volleyball
The Shanghai Open Beach Volleyball Tournament had an amazing run over the past week. It was the third event on 2011 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Calendar, which worked out a great success.
The women’s and men’s duos from across the globe participated in the competition and displayed their amazing skills on the sand. Shanghai Open is the second of 12 double-gender events on this year’s calendar.
In the women’s section, 7th-seeded duo of Marleen Van Iersel and Sanne Keizer of Netherlands won the competition. They contested with defending champions American Jennifer Kessy and April Ross in the final showdown.
The beautiful sunny beaches of Jinshan hosted the thrilling action on Sunday, May 8, 2011. The Dutch duo claimed gold by posting 2-1 (15-21, 26-24, and 15-13) victory over Americans. In the third position match, Austria’s 5th-seeded pairing of Stefanie Schwaiger
and Doris Schwaiger outlasted Brooke Hanson and Lauren Fendrick in an exciting three-set match. Austrian team earned victory at the loss of just one set. They posted 2-1 (21-19, 21-23 and 15-12) victory over U.S. pair.
The opening phase of the game portrayed a different a complete different picture. The defending champions started out with powerful jump-serves. April Ross was on serve and she took bigger run-up to throw the ball at great velocity. American duo worked out
good points and built a lead over the rival side, which had been featured in the finals for the first time. The Dutch players seemed to have little sense of hesitation. First set slightly inched its way to the end, while Kessy/Ross had better points. They
secured opening set and looked determined to defend the title.
However, Dutch pair came out of their sheep cloths in the following set. They responded American in the same tone and stood in the way of their spikes. Second set turned out to be a heated competition. The exchange of fast spikes added a great thrill in
the game. The hard work of Dutch team paid off and they tied the score by winning second set. It was a tiring set, which ended with 2-point lead of Iersel/Keizer at 26-24.
Success in second set allowed Dutch players to stage a better game in third set. On the other hand, Kessy and Ross were raged-up. The 15-point golden set saw close fight between two teams. By hook or by crook, American lost grip on the ball and gave way
to Dutch victory in third set. Iersel/Keizer were named the gold-medallist duo of the 2011 Shanghai Open. They were awarded with $30,000 shared prize money, while the runner-up duo settled for $21,000.
Keizer was simply overjoyed with the great sense of victory. She expressed her views after the match.
She stated, “It felt terrible, it made us very exciting. We had a gap of four points, that’s good for us. We needed to keep the gap to finish the game and we did it just in time. We expected it to be very hard to win this game, but it was possible, and we
got the possible things.”
Likewise, Marleen had this amazing feeling. She said it was the first time that they made it to the final match and also got hold of the title trophy.
Earlier in the day, bronze medal match featured Brooke Hanson/Lauren Fendrick of USA and Austrian Pair of Stefanie Schwaiger and Doris Schwaiger. The match spanned over three sets, where Austrian pair remained successful and got hold of the bronze-medal.
Stefanie Schwaiger commented, “It’s a tough match. We played them the third match now and we lost the first two times against them, we knew it would be a difficult match. We could have won the second set because we already had the match point and then we
lost, so it’s very difficult for us in the third set to win them.”
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