29 Apr 2009

AIS athletes Alice Rohkamper and Louise Bawden have secured their first World Tour victory as a team, also marking the first time that either athlete has progressed from the qualifier to the main draw in the Shanghai Open in China.

In a nail biting 58 minute battle, Rohkamper and Bawden defetead the German pair of Fischer-Grossner 2 - 1 (21-14, 18 - 21, 15 - 11).

The team got off to a fantastic start in the first set with an efficient side-out game and strong serving to create numerous defence transition opportunities to lead early 17-7. Germany clawed their way back to 17-11, but the Aussies finished things off well to win 21-14.

During the second set, the Aussies were again impressive early on with a 7-4 lead. But, Rohkamper and Bawden quickly found themselves down 10-11 at the technical time out. Germany continued to build confidence as they took off to lead 16-19 while the Australians struggled to put the ball on the sand. Germany eventually took out the set 18-21.

In the pressure-packed final set, the early score was 5-5. The Australians took the lead for the first time at 7-6 – before a point-for-point session ensued. Rohkamper and Bawden then took four consecutive points to create a 13-10 lead, eventually setting up the AIS athletes to take out the set and match on their first match point. The final score for the set was 15-11.

The highlight of the match was the defensive digging of the Australian pair and the final two blocks of the match leading to victory.

This is a fantastic result for the team and now creates a great opportunity in tomorrow's main draw.

Rohkamper-Bawden will be joined in the main draw tournament by our other Australian team of Becchara Palmer and Heike Jensen.

Next Match:
Women's Main Draw: Palmer-Jensen, Rohkamper-Bawden
Men's Qualification: Boehm-McHugh, Campbell-Grice (team's International World Tour debut)
Tomorrow's matches will start from 9am Shanghai time.
Shanghai is 2 hours behind Australian Eastern Standard Time.

Keep up to date with the results by following the FIVB website (simply click on Shanghai under ‘Now Playing’.

Thank you to FIVB for their assistance in preparing this news story.