Xiamen, China, April 13, 2016 – Teresa Mersmann and Isabel Schneider of Germany had a good start of their new season as they swept Italy’s Diane Perry and Laura Giombini 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) in 38 minutes here on Wednesday to reach the women’s Main Draw of the double-gender $150,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Xiamen Open.
“We are very happy to win in two sets. I think we found our game after a few points,” said Mersmann. “We were a bit nervous, and then we were very focused on the game and I never doubt we will win the game after the first few points.”
The Xiamen Open was the first tournament of the new season for Mersmann and Schneider and they would like to show everybody the best of their beach volleyball.
“The first game in the season is always important mentally and physically,” Mersmann said. “You will play your best, show all the people how well you practiced in the winter. You need this rhythm, so first game is always special for us.”
Mersmann, 25, and Schneider, 24, finished ninth in Xiamen last year and they aimed higher this time.
“I think we want to play our best beach volleyball. That's always the first goal. We often become ninth in the Open and that would be very good because the level of the tournament is very high, but I think we want to take one step further more to the quarterfinals,” Mersmann said. “But when this happens, everything has to be fine, so we have to play our best beach volleyball. We'll see.”
Mersmann and Schneider have also put their eyes on the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020.
“There are so many teams in Germany and the level in Germany is very high,” Mersmann said. “Now we are the sixth team in Germany so, it's impossible to qualify for this Olympics, but we want to play in Tokyo in 2020.”