What a way to start your first Major!

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Kelly (left) and Sara were just a little bit happy after their win! Photocredit: Sebastian Marko.

They say first impressions count – so what an amazing start to Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes’ first Swatch Major Series tournament…beating Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst in straight sets!

In all honesty we shouldn’t be writing this…the American wildcards want to stay out of the limelight after such an amazing victory on day one of the women’s main draw at the A1 Major Klagenfurt.

They were joking of course – their smiles told their own story following one of the biggest upsets we’ve seen this summer.

“We said that we would go out there and just have fun and compete, focus on our side of the court and go and give them some and we’ve won!” a very, very, very happy Sara told us.

“We had nothing to lose,” added Kelly. “We wanted to enjoy the game and play for each other and we ended up coming out on top – it was amazing.”

So where does this magnificent victory rank in their achievement to date – bearing in mind they are just 20 and 21.

“It might be the biggest win!” laughed Sara. “We played April and Kerri in the AVP before and took them to three sets and lost 17-15 so we lost that – but against this caliber and at this level it probably is our best win.”

It doesn’t get any easier for the young stars, though. Their next match is against Olympic-bound Canadians Broder/Valjas.

“We’re stoked to be here and excited about this win but we’ve got to push that to one side now and focus on the next,” said Kelly.

“We’re kind of the underdogs right now,” added Sara. “We’re a young American team that not many people have seen before so we could use that to our advantage. Our focus is to win the rest of the matches and to prove to people that we deserve to be here.”

After a result like this they you certainly do, girls!