Home favs get the job done on boiling hot Danube Island

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Clemens and Alex celebrate

It’s happening! Last year’s World Championship runners-up and local heroes Clemens Doppler and Alex Horst are at it again.

Losing the first set, putting their fans through the emotional rollercoaster in the hottest sporting theatre, aka the Red Bull Beach Arena.

The Austrians know how to succeed here – and with temperatures courtside soaring beyond 40 degrees Celsius – it was do or die for Doppler/Horst against the Canadians Sam Pedlow and Sam Schachter.

And when you lose the first set, things just get that little harder. However, this is Clemens and Alex in Vienna…

“It’s almost 38 degrees out there and it’s a fight to stay alive,” an exhausted Clemens said after the comeback victory. “When you play a three setter and lose the first against a team you’ve practiced through the whole week with, it’s tough – really tough.

“However, it’s a sign for us and shows what adrenaline can do for you because at the beginning of the third set, I was dead. I’m happy Schachter took a medical time out because if he hadn’t, I would. In the end it was hard to jump and keen concentration. In these conditions, keeping your focus is the main factor – this is an advantage. We’ve played a lot of games like this and we’ve shown again we can deal with this kind of situation.

“Body-wise we’re not any worse off than the younger teams. We said that last year and nobody believed us. Today it’s a sign it’s true.”

The victorious Austrians are now guaranteed a place in the elimination rounds, but will aim to top Pool H when they take on Qataris Tijan/Cherif on the Red Bull Beach Arena later today.

There wasn't an empty seat on the Red Bull Beach Arena