The home team wins in Hamburg - Articles

The Germans won in their home town Saturday as Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst captured the FIVB Hamburg Major, their third gold medal of the year. The red-hot team has come up big in three of four weeks, also winning the European Championships and the Antalya Open. Ludwig/Walkenhorst reached the finals with a win over Kerri Walsh-Jennings/April Ross of the U.S. 21-16, 19-21, 16-14. They then harnessed the power of the home crowd to top Brazilians Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas 21-19, 19-21, 15-12. The home team is attracting major media interest in Hamburg; the Tuesday post-match news conference attracted more than 50 media members. “We wanted to start in Antalya to get our rhythm and play more competitively. Moscow was not that good but we’re getting better in our game and it makes it a lot of fun,” Walkenhurst said. “Now we are playing beach volleyball and I think we can go two steps up. It’s nice.” Bednarczuk/Seixas defeated Larissa Franca/Talita Antunes 19-21, 21-18, 15-11 to reach the final. Franca/Antunes subsequently excluded Walsh Jennings/Ross from the podium with a 21-15, 21-17 win that earned them a bronze medal. The Brazilian win avenged a recent loss in Moscow two weeks ago. The loss is the first time that Walsh-Jennings/Ross have not medaled since 2015. “We had an up and down tournament the whole time,” said Walsh Jennings. “You can get away with certain things with other teams, the deeper you go in the tournament the more that’s exposed.” On the men’s side, the semifinals were set for Sunday as Brazil’s...

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