Beach volleyball - Vienna

Klingers advance to the quarter-finals with a strong performance

Dorina and Ronja Klinger

(Bild: GEPA)

Dorina and Ronja Klinger are through to the quarter-finals of the Elite 16 tournament at Vienna's Heumarkt after a strong performance!

The sister duo defeated the runners-up in the European Championships Daniela Alvaraz/Tania Moreno from Spain in a three-set thriller (22,-18,12) in the intermediate round on Friday afternoon. The Klingers thus reached the round of the best eight for the first time at the 25th edition of an elite tournament.

"It's unbelievable, we fought so hard!"
"I have no words. It's unbelievable, we fought so hard to get here. Now we're in the quarter-finals," said an emotional Ronja Klinger. They achieved their first win against the Spaniards in their sixth match. In the quarter-finals, the Klingers will face Svenja Müller/Cinja Tillmann from Germany on Friday (5 p.m.). Before that (4 p.m.), Austria's Olympic duo Julian Hörl/Alexander Horst need a win against Australia's Mark Nicolaidis/Izac Carracher to reach the intermediate round.

"I was speechless on match point!"
The Klingers had to tremble in the first set despite taking a clear lead at one point. The sisters finally converted their fifth set point to make it 24:22. The second set was evenly poised for a long time, but towards the end the Spaniards capitalized on rare mistakes by the Klingers. In the decider, Dorina and Ronja stepped up their already strong performance, played extremely confidently in the sideout and won spectacular points on their opponents' serve.

"During the one long rally, I think at 10:7, where Ronja defended, I thought we were going to win it. But we had to stay focused. I was speechless on match point," explained Dorina Klinger. The Klingers, who had only reached the knockout phase in third place in the group by one point, converted their second match point to the cheers of the already packed center court.