Swiss stars belief World Tour Finals will help

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Tanja and Nina in action against Brazil in their first World Tour Finals appearance

The youngest team in the tournament – Swiss wildcards Nina Betschart and Tanja Hüberli – are happy to be in Hamburg and are hoping to use the experience later in their careers.

The Swiss duo are the youngest women’s team at the Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals with a combined age of 45.

Having enjoyed another consistent season, the pair were awarded a wildcard for the biggest end-of-season competition on the sand.

“It’s really exciting for us to play here,” said 21-year-old Nina. “We got the wildcard and we’re really delighted that we can play without pressure and that we won’t feel too sad if it’s not enough.

“We just need to be consistent but the experience of a tournament like this will help us.

“If you look in our sport one of the most important things is experience – keeping your calm, knowing when to play the right shots, things like that. Especially at this high level.

“At the moment there are times when we don’t play too well and that’s the one thing we’re missing at the moment – consistency. That will come with experience.”

Nina and Tanja came up against another youngster in 19-year-old Duda and her teammate Agatha Bednarczuk in their opening match of the competition, but lost in straight sets to the Brazilians.

“We were really focused to have a good start here,” Duda said afterwards. “We were back in Rio de Janeiro during the last two weeks after two months on the road and it was very good for us to be home for a while and prepare well for this tournament, which is a very important one. We played well as a team and were really happy on the court.”

You can watch this game back on our demand section of BeachStream, as well as both teams’ second pool play matches live. Click here to sign up and view for free.

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