Broder/Valjas from Canada on form at Fuzhou Open

Canada's Jamie Lynn Broder and Kristina Valjas earned themselves two wins on the first day of women's pool play at the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball Fuzhou Open here on Thursday.

It was a great opening day of main draw play for Broder/Valjas. Their first match saw a win against Thailand's Varapatsorn Radarong/Tanarattha Udomchavee 2-0 (21-14, 21-10) before they met Miller Pata and Linline Matauatu from Vanuatu in the afternoon.

The Vanuatu pair came out strongly at the beginning of the match sending Broder/Valjas to every part of the court. The Canadians then calmed into the match, but the two teams continued to appear relatively even.

Broder/Valjas were more confident in the second set and settled into their rhythm taking the lead. Pata/Matauatu did not give away anything easily, but the Canadians remained focused and ended the match 2-0 (24-22, 21-17).

"We're pretty happy to come away with two wins today, it's our first event of the season so we always want to come out strong and we're so excited to be competing again so it was really nice to get out there and finish with two wins," said Broder.

"This match was a little bit tougher than the one this morning. I think also for us it was just playing one point at a time and not letting the whole match take over too much. Keep setting between each play and just staying confident and believing each other so we just reset and stayed calm and knew that we could execute in the end if we just did that," said Valjas.

In their final pool match on April 24, Broder/Valjas will play Lauren Fendrick/Brooke Sweat from USA.

"We're feeling good about tomorrow, they're our rivals, I think they've beaten us once before and we've beaten them so it'll be interesting to see what happens, we're ready to play," said Valjas.

"I think it'll be a really fun match, they're a great pair, we're friends with them off the court, they are really nice girls so it'll be competitive and I think it'll be a lot of fun because they're a strong team," said Broder.

Australia's Louise Bawden and Taliqua Clancy end the first day of the main draw top of their pool after beating Barbara Hansel/Stefanie Schwaiger from Austria 2-0 (21-17, 21-16). The match began quite evenly but as Bawden pounced on every great set from Clancy the Australians secured the first set.

Schwaiger placed consistently high quality balls straight down the line and put pressure on Bawden/Clancy in the second, but the Australians kept their heads for their second win in Pool E.

"We're really pleased with the way that we stuck together as a team. I think we worked really hard, brought good communication and were prepared to stay patient. We kept bringing the energy which made for a good finish for us for today," said Bawden.

"I completely agree, I thought our teamwork was really good, they definitely are both two very experienced players, for me anyway not being on the tour as much as them - so it was really good. Our teamwork and the energy that we brought meant we stayed very clear on how we want to play our game style - so I think it's looking good. I'happy, a successful first day," said Clancy.

In their first pool match Bawden/Clancy faced Brazil's Liliane Maestrini and Carolina Horta Maximo. In one of the tightest matches of the day, Australia held on to beat Lili/Carol Maximo 2-1 (21-17, 18-21, 15-12).

Also on Thursday, 2013 Fuzhou Open champion, China's Chen Xue was forced to pull out of her second pool match due to a shoulder injury.

In its third consecutive year, the Fuzhou Open is the first double-gender event of the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour calendar with a prize purse of 150,000 US dollars. The men's medal matches will be held on Saturday and the women's medal matches will be held on Sunday. Endi