Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss overcame a difficult start on Thursday at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite16 to end the day at the Am Rothenbaum Stadium with two wins and a spot in the elimination rounds under their belts.

The Americans were one of four women's teams to go undefeated on the first day of the main draw in Germany and will be back on the court on Friday, when they will try to claim the first place in Pool C and a direct spot in the quarterfinals.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite16 matches live on VBTV

Coming from a fifth-place finish at the Montréal Elite16 three weeks ago, the Americans were strongly challenged by Germans Karla Borger and Sandra Ittlinger in their first match in Hamburg, but still managed to win in straight sets (23-21, 21-17).

A few hours later, they went back on the court to face the recently-crowned European champions Nina Brunner and Tanja Hüberli of Switzerland and recovered from an inconsistent first set to take the match in the tie-breaker (11-21, 21-16, 15-12) and guarantee a spot in the elimination rounds.

“I think that we ended the day playing much better than we started it, so we hope we can carry that second set and third set momentum into tomorrow,” Nuss analyzed. “I definitely think we need to clean up serve-receive and I think we can apply more service pressure on the other team.”

The only team with two victories in their pool, the 26-year-old Kloth and the 25-year-old Nuss will complete their pool play schedule on Friday, at 14:00 local time (12:00 UTC), against French Lézana Placette and Alexia Richard, who lost to Brunner and Hüberli 2-0 (22-20, 21-11) and swept Borger and Ittlinger (21-16, 21-17) in their second match.

“Our pool here in Hamburg is stacked, as every other pool in an Elite16 event,” Kloth reflected. “Every match is a battle and we have to show up for each one of them. For tomorrow, we know that the French always come out with a lot of energy, they’re very fiery and they get a lot of touches. The big things for us will be staying locked in and making sure the ball is actually down because they get really incredible, crazy digs.”

Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite16 – Match Schedule and Results

Le campionesse del mondo in carica Eduarda "Duda" Lisboa e Ana Patrícia Ramos sono state la squadra migliore della Pool A nella prima giornata del main draw di Amburgo e si sono garantite anche i turni eliminatori. Le brasiliane hanno sconfitto (22-20, 21-18) le lettoni Tina Graudina e Anastasija Samoilova nel match d'apertura e hanno poi superato le connazionali Carol Salgado e Bárbara Seixas al tie-break (25-27, 21-14, 18-16).

Nella Pool B, le qualificate tedesche Laura Ludwig e Louisa Lippman hanno ottenuto una coppia di vittorie per il secondo giorno consecutivo ad Amburgo, assicurandosi un posto nei turni eliminatori. Le due, che hanno iniziato l'evento nelle qualificazioni mercoledì, hanno battuto le cinesi Chen Xue e Xinyi Xia al tie-break (13-21, 21-19, 15-12) e hanno dominato le brasiliane Ágatha Bednarczuk e Rebecca Cavalcanti in set diretti (21-10, 21-15) per rimanere imbattute dopo due giorni di gare.

La Pool D ha visto le americane Kelly Cheng e Sara Hughes in testa dopo la prima giornata di gare. Le due hanno dovuto vincere un paio di tie-break per assicurarsi un posto nei turni eliminatori, sconfiggendo le italiane Marta Menegatti e Valentina Gottardi per 11-21, 21-16, 15-11 e battendo le tedesche Cinja Tillmann e Svenja Müller per 18-21, 21-15, 15-10 nell'ultimo incontro della giornata.

Le donne completeranno i gironi dell'Elite16 di Amburgo venerdì, con ogni coppia che giocherà un'altra partita. La squadra meglio classificata di ogni pool passerà direttamente ai quarti di finale, mentre i tandem secondi e terzi classificati disputeranno gli ottavi di finale - entrambi i turni si giocheranno sabato. Le semifinali e le partite per le medaglie sono in programma domenica ad Amburgo.

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