20 in a row for Gstaad and Vienna champs

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Christian Sørum (digging) and Anders Mol have now won 20 successive matches

Who can stop Anders Mol and Christian Sørum? The invincible Norwegians extended their winning streak to 20 matches after they beat Polish pair Grzegorz Fijalek and Michal Bryl in their opening match of the Hamburg Finals.

The Beach Volley Vikings have been in sensational form on the sand, winning their last three tournaments: the Gstaad and Vienna Majors plus the European Championships.

As the media interest in the duo increases, they were asked: what’s the secret?

“We just have a lot of fun on the court,” said Christian after the straight sets win over the Poles – in what was a repeat of the A1 Major Vienna presented by Swatch gold medal match.

“We have been practicing hard the whole off-season and it’s starting to pay off. We are finding a nice rhythm. We’re happy with the way we’re playing and we want it to continue.”

With such a long winning run, the pair were quizzed whether the long sequence is playing on their minds.

“We take it one match at a time but we want to win every time we step on the sand,” said Anders. “We don’t think about the streak. We’re just concerned about playing good volleyball, that’s our goal.”

The young Vikings, who are just 21 and 22, have come close to defeat during their unbeaten run – none closer than their semifinal win over Taylor Crabb and Jake Gibb in Gstaad, where they had a match point against them.

“That was for sure toughest match,” admitted Christian. “We watched that game again and it was crazy. We were inches away from losing that game.”

Coming so close to losing is something that the pair are using as motivation as they aim to make it four tournament gold medals on the spin.

“At the moment our bottom level is so high right now that even when we have a bad game it’s actually a pretty good performance!” explained Anders. “Seldom do we lose 21-12 and we get crushed, but even if we do we are always able to come back in the next set.”

Christian added: “We have no stress. If we’re down, we get on with it, find new tactics and adjust our play.”

Although it was a repeat of the final from Vienna, the duo felt this game, on their World Tour Finals debut, was the tougher match.

“I think this was harder,” revealed Anders. “The first match of any tournament is important. They already had a win today, and that’s always an advantage.

“They were confident but so are we right now. We know we are playing at a high level and we want to play at that level for as long as we can.”

Can the Vikings stretch their run to 21 matches? Find out at 10am CEST on Thursday when they take on Latvians Plavins/Tocs. Watch it live on BeachStream.

20 wins in a row for the @beachvolleyvikings!😱 Watch all of the #HamburgFinals on BeachStream [link in bio 🏐] @andybmol @christiansorum @fijalekbryl @vodafone_de @hamburg_de @redbullgermany

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