Canadians celebrate first win in Hamburg

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Brandie and Heather bounced back from Wednesday's defeat to record their first win at the Hamburg Finals

On Wednesday they lost to rivals Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes, but day two of the Hamburg Finals had a much better beginning for Canadians Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson.

The duo, who finished fifth in the World Championships in Vienna two weeks ago, downed in-form Czech stars Barbora Hermannová and Marketa Sluková in straight sets to give themselves a chance of an automatic qualification to the quarterfinals.

And the pair, who first joined forces on the eve of last year’s Toronto Finals, have enjoyed the past 12 months on the sand together and believe there’s much more to come.

“It’s been great, I can’t believe a year has gone so quickly,” said Heather. “I see so much potential with this team and I can only see us getting better.

“Even though it’s been a year, it’s been quite a short time, so I’m looking forward to having more time this off-season together to get better for next season and beyond.”

Brandie, who is playing in only her 23rd international tournament, added: “To be able to learn from Heather and be able to help her has been amazing.

“She’s been open enough to let me be myself and play my own game and we’ve found a really good way to play together. Our personalities and styles of play complement each other and I think this is only the beginning.”

Having lost their opening game yesterday, Bansley was understandably pleased to have bounced back to winning ways against the Czechs.

“I’m really happy that we were able to turn things around after yesterday’s loss,” she said. “We had to refocus for today’s match. We cleaned up some of the things we struggled with yesterday and that helped us to win the match. But we can always be more consistent.”

You can watch a replay of this match, as well as the Canadian derby from Wednesday, on BeachStream.