Canadians Bansley and Wilkerson suffered an early exit at the Danube Island

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Wilkerson and Bansley lost both of their matches in the Vienna Major

Canadians Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson had their recent great form interrupted as the world ranking leaders were knocked out of the A1 Major Vienna presented by Swatch after the conclusion of the first day of the main draw at the Danube Island.

The Canadians, who had top-5 finishes in each of their six last international events, including  a bronze medal in Gstaad, lost their two pool play matches in Vienna and were ranked 25th, finishing last in Pool B. They downed by Italians Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi Toth in their first match, but it was the 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) setback to Russians Nadezda Makroguzova and Svetlana Kholomina that sealed their faith at the Danube Island.

“It’s a very special victory for us,” Makroguzova, a two-time Under-22 European champion said after the game. “We were looking forward to play then. We were supposed to have played them in Brazil in May but Svetlana had a problem and we couldn’t play, so it was nice to get this victory.”

It was just the second time in 18 World Tour events that Bansley and Wilkerson left the tournament without a single victory. The first time happened in the four-star tournament in Xiamen, China, last April.

The other seven teams that were eliminated from the Vienna Major after back-to-back defeats were Austria’s Nadine Strauss/Franziska Friedl and Katharina Schützenhöfer/Lena Plesiutschnig, the Netherlands’ Marleen van Iersen/Joy Stubbe, Spain’s Amaranta Fernández/Angela Lobato, Germany’s Karla Borger/Margareta Kozuch, Canada’s Taylor Pischke/Jamie Broder and Slovakia’s Natalia Dubovcova/Andrea Strbova.   

Friday’s schedule will feature the Round of 24, where 16 of the 24 remaining teams will play elimination matches in Vienna. The first-placed tandems in each pool will get a bye and already qualified to the Round of 16, getting the day off.

Click here to see the schedule.