Taliqua and Mariafe off to a winning start in Hamburg

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It’s been four months since Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar won the silver medal at their home Commonwealth Games in Australia.

Yet there was no motivation for revenge for the Aussie duo after they turned the tables on Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan by getting their Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals campaign off to a winning start in Hamburg.

“It feels so long ago since the Commonwealth Games but we’ve trained together quite a bit,” Taliqua said after their straight sets win over the Canadians – the first time they had met on the international tour.

“We didn’t think much of revenge, for us it’s exciting to be playing here, against the top 10 teams in the world. We want to enjoy this moment and playing free and without pressure enables us to do that. I think we play our best when we don’t have pressure – I wish we did that during the Comm Games!”

Mariafe added: “It’s 1-1 now against them but the pressure during the Comm Games tournament was 10 times more. The emotional and mental demand that we experienced at that tournament was like nothing else. It’s always tough to play against them – they’re one of the best – but there was a probably a little bit less pressure on us today so we played free and that brings out the best in us.”

A good start in the World Tour Finals is always a crucial – even more so this season following the modified pool play which will see two teams eliminated at the end of the opening phase.

“It’s always very crucial to start any tournament well,” said Mariafe. “You need to start strong otherwise you’re always playing catch-up.

“We’re focusing on playing free and we’re happy that in this moment we are playing some good volleyball. We’ve backed ourselves to do well here and it’s worked out so it’s really cool.”

Next up for the Australians is a meeting against the Vienna Major champions Marketa Sluková and Barbora Hermannová. Watch the game live on BeachStream at 3pm on Thursday.

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