Americans targeting another Hamburg medal after World Champs woe

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Nick and Phil cruised to a straight sets win to start the Finals in style

The first game of the Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals presented by Vodafone went the way of the 2015 silver medalists Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena.

The Americans, who finished runners-up in the Fort Lauderdale edition of the World Tour Finals two years ago, recorded a straight sets win over Spain’s Herrera/Gavira to give them the perfect start in the pool play in the shadows of the Rothenbaum on Tuesday.

Having disappointed themselves with a fifth place finish at the World Championships in Vienna, the duo are focusing on bouncing back to form at a place they know well – last year they won gold at the Hamburg Major.

“We didn’t play so well and ran into a hot team at the world champs [Krasilnikov/Liamin],” Phil told us.

“We’ve had a good season, with two wins, but we want to win this and this is a good start. We want to win the pool as that gives us a bye to the quarterfinals so a two-sets win is a good start.”

Lucena, however, feels the team will need to up their game when they take on Austrians Doppler/Horst on Thursday.

“We’re going to have to play a lot better,” said the defender. “Fortunately we got the win today but I didn’t think we were going to win that match.

“Every team here and beat anyone, and this Spanish team have been among the best for the eight years they’ve been together.

“You can’t take a game off – we’re lucky we have the rest of the day off to get our bodies working and tomorrow hopefully we’re not feeling so old and we can be better.”

Remember you can watch this game again on the on demand section of BeachStream, as well as every game live as it happens from the Rothenbaum.

Herrera/Gavira of Spain in action in the shadows of the Rothenbaum in the first match of the World Tour Finals