Seidl and Waller keep Austria on top in Baden

he World Tour’s Baden Open trophy will remain in Austria’s possession as Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller won the 2020 edition of the tournament this weekend and guaranteed a home team at the top of the podium for the third year of the tournament’s existence. Swiss Tanja Hüberli and Nina Betschart were the winners among the women.

Seidl, a Rio 2016 Olympian, and Waller entered the last day of competition in Baden as the only hopes for Austrian fans after the elimination of six home teams on Saturday, including 2018 and 2019 champions Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst, who were ninth this year.

The team delivered and made the home fans happy as they downed Swiss Adrian Heidrich and Mirco Gerson in a three-set battle (21-17, 16-21, 15-11) to take the title, their second at the World Tour following a victory in a three-star event in Hayiang, China, in 2018.

“It’s always nice to step at the top of the podium and at home, with my friends watching, it’s even better,” Waller commented. “I think we made some adjustments on our blocking and defense in the third set and they paid off soon, which gave us a nice cushion to manage.”

Switzerland also won the bronze medal with Yves Haussener and Quentin Metral downing Slovenians Jan Pokersnik and Nejc Zemljak 25-23, 21-19 in the third-place match.

The country also took home a pair of medals in the women’s tournament, which saw an all-Swiss final with Hüberli and Betschart facing Joana Heidrich and Anouk Vergé-Dépré. After the semifinalists of last year’s World Championship won the first set, Heidrich had a finger injury and decided to forfeit the match.

 

 

 

 

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BADEN OPEN-Gold für 🇨🇭und Seidl/Waller für 🇦🇹 🥇 geht beim FIVB World Tour BADEN OPEN presented by Sportland Niederösterreich an Nina Betschart/Tanja Hüberli 🇨🇭 und Robin Seidl/Philipp Waller 🇦🇹. Die Schweizerinnen gewannen nach einer verletzungsbedingten Aufgabe ihrer Landsfrauen Joana Heidrich/ Anouk Vergé-Dépré 🇨🇭. Für Betschart/Tanja Hüberli ist es der zweite Baden-Sieg nach 2016 und das erste Gold auf der World Tour. Im Herren-Finale besiegten die Österreicher Adrian Heidrich/Mirco Gerson 🇨🇭 in drei Sätzen mit 1-2 (17-21, 21-16, 11-15). In den 🥉-Matches setzten sich Victoria Bieneck/Isabel Schneider 🇩🇪 gegen Julia Sude/Karla Borger 🇩🇪 mit 1-2 (16-21, 22-20, 13-15) und die Qualifikanten Quentin Métral/Yves Haussener 🇨🇭 gegen Nejc Zemljak/Jan Pokeršnik 🇸🇮 mit 0-2 (23-25, 19-21) durch. 📷 Florian Schrötter #bvbaden20

A post shared by Beachvolleyball Baden (@beachvolleyball.baden) on Aug 23, 2020 at 10:20am PDT

It was the first World Tour title for Betschart and Hüberli, who had ironically secured their only victory as a team together at the same Austrian city in 2016, in a European Tour event.

“It’s never good to win a match in these circumstances,” Hüberli reflected. “But I think we can be very happy and proud of the way we played this weekend. We were playing until Joana’s injury and even earlier in the tournament we had some tough matches and fought our ways through them.”

The bronze medal match, an all-German affair, saw Victoria Bieneck and Isabel Schneider triumph over Karla Borger and Julia Sude in three sets (21-16, 20-22, 15-13).

The World Tour continues in Europe next week with a men-only one-star event in Montpellier, France.