Australians turn disappointment into delight

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Mariafe (left) and Taliqua have been in impressive form in Hamburg this week

Yesterday, Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho came off the Red Bull Beach Arena court thinking what might have been after failing to take a match point against Czech duo Barbora Hermannová and Marketa Sluková.

Today, it was a completely different story as the Aussies stormed past Brazilians Agatha Bednarczuk and Duda Lisboa in straight sets to give them a great chance of reaching the elimination stage.

“We came out hard today after what happened yesterday because we were so close,” Mariafe explained after the 21-18, 21-12 win over the Brazilians. “We felt the game was ours yesterday but it slipped away and we weren’t going to let that happen today. We knew we had to take care of business and we did that, showing our true Aussie spirit.”

The tandem opened their Hamburg Finals campaign with a fine win over Canadians Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes and can count themselves unlucky not to have a 100 per cent record against three of the world’s top teams.

And their performances at the Rothenbaum have shown the Commonwealth Games silver medalists and recent Espinho Open winners are a force to be reckoned with in Germany.

“I’m proud with the way we’ve played, it’s another step forward,” said Taliqua. “Unfortunately we couldn’t get over the line yesterday bit we take every time we play on the court as another step towards our development. Now we want to keep our momentum going and keep playing in this atmosphere because it really helps us bring out our best.”

Taliqua and Mariafe will take on German team Isabel Schneider and Victoria Bieneck in their final pool play match at 1pm CEST on the Red Bull Beach Arena. A victory would guarantee the Australians a place in the elimination phase and could – if results go their way – place them directly in the semifinals.

Watch this and every match at the tournament live on BeachStream.

What a save 😱 Watch every #HamburgFinals match live and again on demand on BeachStream [link in bio] @taliqua @mariafe_beach1 @timeagathaeduda @vodafone_de @hamburg_de

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