After being down 14-11, Seidl and Waller reacted and found their way in to the Vienna Major main draw

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Robin Seild came up big in the end of the match

If the home fans had to settle for an Austrian setback in the first match played at the Red Bull Beach Arena in the A1 Major Vienna presented by Swatch, the ones who stayed there for another hour were rewarded with one of the big moments of the tournament so far as local hereos Robin Seild and Phillipp Waller had an impressive comeback to book their places in to the main draw at the Danube Island.

The Austrians, who had debuted with an impressive victory against Russian youngsters Artem Yarzutkin and Maxim Sivolap in the first round of the qualification tournament, were trailing Italians Marco Caminati and Enrico Rossi 14-11 in the third set before they turned things around to win 15-21, 21-9, 16-14 and secure their main draw spot.

“Our mindset was to just keep going,” Seidl said after the game. “We didn’t stress about the score or about losing. We know we were good and we had a good strategy, so we just kept pushing. Regardless of the score, we just kept playing our game and that’s how we won it.

The 28-year-old came up big in the end of the game with three straight blocks that helped his team to not only avoid the Italians to score the point that would seal their victory, but also to turn things around in front of thousands of fans at the Red Bull Beach Arena.

“We served Enrico almost the entire third set and Phillipp suggested us to change it to Marco in the end so we could get him a little bit out of rhythm and it worked,” he added. “He got stressed with the first block and in the end he had to go for a shot and we knew it was coming.”

Seidl and the 22-year-old Waller, who will play in a main draw in the Beach Major Series event for the first time, are in just their fourth tournament together. They won the three-star World Tour event in Haiyang, China, just two weeks ago.

“It’s unbelievable, I simply cannot explain it,” an ecstatic Walle commented. “It was fantastic to play in front of so many fans. We’ll keep the same way in the main draw, we’ll take one game at a game and see how it goes.”

Austria will now have five teams in the men’s main draw with Seidl and Walle joining Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst, Tobias Winter/Julian Hörl, Simon Frühbauer/Jörg Wutzl and Martin Ermacora/Moritz Pristauz.

Other three teams have qualified to the Vienna Major main draw: Chile’s Marco and Esteban Grimalt, USA’s Taylor Crabb and Jake Gibb and Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan. The final four spots will be decided this afternoon.