Swiss female duo aims to make a clean sweep in Pool E of the 2012 Rome Grand Slam – Volleyball news
Top duo of Switzerland, which is composed of Nadine Zumkehr and Simone Kuhn, has high hopes to finish the first round of main draw without any loss.
The Swiss duo has claimed two victories in the competition so far and seems totally shaped up to win the third match in row. The 12th-seeded Zumkehr-Kuhn played their first match of Rome Grand Slam on Wednesday. They were challenged by compatriots Tanja
Goricanec and Muriel Graessli, who did not create much trouble for them.
Goricanec-Graessli had to cope with the power of a stronger team from their own country. The match started out with an early exchange of serves. Kuhn-Zumkehr formed good combinations and promptly picked up lead. The opposite duo trailed behind and could
not match its performance with compatriots. First set quickly covered its length and awarded Kuhn-Zumkehr with opening win at 21-13.
After losing the first set, Goricanec-Graessli played comparatively better in the next frame. They managed to take some good points but still failed to prove their endeavours. Pumped-up Kuhn-Zumkehr posted 21-17 on board and claimed the match in consecutive
sets.
Zumkehr was filled with joy after winning the first match. She expressed her emotions in the following manner. She stated, “It was very good, but hot out there. It is always hard to play against your own country because you know each other very well. It
was very important to win this game, so we are very happy.”
She further added, “We won the first set pretty easily and that is always dangerous because if you lose the second the whole match starts in the third set and you never know what will happen, so it was very important that we did it in two.”
In the next match on Thursday, winning Swiss duo of Kuhn-Zumkehr collided with Belgium’s Mouha-Gielen. The ambitious Swiss tandem showed great consistency in their second match and managed to overcome the rivals from Belgium. They stamped 2-0 (21-17, 25-23)
win over Belgian duo and completed the winning streak of two matches. It took them only 42 minutes to reach victory in the second match.
Next up, Kuhn and Zumkehr are scheduled to take on home duo of Cicolari and Menegatti from Italy. The hosts will be equipped with emotional support of fans, which means the Swiss team will be required to showcase an extra-ordinary performance to win against
the local duo. Nonetheless, Kuhn and Zumkehr have the potential to deal with the challenge.
Tags: