Umag, Croatia, June 22, 2013 – Germany’s Anna Behlen and Yanina Weiland eliminated Taina Silva Bigi and Eduarda Santos Lisboa from Brazil in three sets (21-11 19-21 15-13) at the U21 World Championships in Umag on Saturday. Fourteen-year old Eduarda won the silver medal at the U23 World Championships just two weeks ago.
In Umag Eduarda played with a different partner and in the second elimination round match it was obvious that there was not a lot of chemistry between the two players. But after getting crushed in the first set, Brazil, who were pool winners on Friday, started playing better in the second. They held off the Germans, who drew level a few times, long enough to take the set.
In the tiebreak Behlen (20) and Weiland (19) took a lead from 3-3 and at 14-12 got their first set point. Behlen served in the net, but at their second match point Weiland claimed the match with a line shot. “I wanted to make a really nice last point”, Behlen explained her serving error.
Good side-out and serve
“Overall we played a good side-out and our serving was good”, Weiland said. “I think they were nervous in the first set, but they came back in the second. Our service was not good enough in the second and we made more mistakes.”
Weiland saw Eduarda last year at the Youth World Championships in Larnaka, where she finished 4th and Eduarda 5th. “We knew she is a good player even though she is young.” So they decided to serve on Taina and that tactic worked very well in this match.
Behlen and Weiland only started practicing together two weeks before the U21, so they are happy with the results so far. “We get better game by game during the tournament”, Behlen said. Where their journey will end, they don’t know. “We know we can play well, but there are so many other good teams out here.”
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