Finland's Lehtonen/Lahti fend off competition at Fuzhou Open

Riika Lehtonen/Taru Lahti from Finland fended off the competition to enter the second round of the single elimination at the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball Fuzhou Open on Friday.

Lehtonen/Lahti have time to prepare for the knock-out phase after beating Germany's Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude 2-0 (21-16, 21-13) in their concluding pool match.

With two wins each for Lehtonen/Lahti and Laboureur/Sude, the final pool match would decide the winner of Pool C. As the sun emerged through the clouds in Fuzhou, the two teams took to center court with little to separate the two in the first set.

Laboureur/Sude had a strong season together in 2014 climbing the podium at the Durban Open with silver. The two teams displayed similar determination with accurate dinks over the net.

A couple of German service errors at the start of the second put pressure on Laboureur/Sude as Lehtonen/Lahti took advantage of the situation. Close teamwork by the Fins set up for some great third touches and Lehtonen/Lahti went from strength to strength taking the win 2-0 (21-16, 21-13).

"We're feeling pretty good because we have never beaten that couple before and of course we are coming from difficult year. We worked a lot and have big goals and now it's nice that we are in the shape that we can start to challenge those couples. We played well tactically and kept our tactics throughout the game and that worked out and our side-out was good, so we can just be happy about the result, but it's not finished yet," said Lehtonen.

"It was a good game with our good side-out and block defence. They made a lot of service mistakes which helped us," said Lahti.

In 2014 Lehtonen/Lahti's best results came towards the end of the year at the Xiamen and Mangaung Opens where they finished ninth.

"It's a little different than last year because basically I didn't have any practice behind me, we just started to play and that you can absolutely see in the game," said Lehtonen.

"For sure we will scout the other players before tomorrow because we haven't seen so many couples so we will see more about our adversaries and then to rest and keep going day by day, game by game and ball by ball.

"We always search for the best, we have the kind of character that we are not satisfied with anything less than the best so that' s why we really need to focus on the moment and stay there, you cannot think too much further," she added.

Laboureur/Sude also progressed to round two after beating fellow countrywomen Anni Schumacher/Sandra Seyfferth from Germany 2-0 (21-12, 21-10).

Focus on center then shifted to China's Wang Fan/Yue Yuan, now the clear local favourite after Xue Chen/Xia Xinyi were forced to a disappointing withdrawal following a shoulder injury sustained by Xue on the first day of pool play.

Wang/Yue met Schumacher/Seyfferth from Germany in their last Pool A match as temperatures reached the hottest of the tournament so far. With the Chinese crowds on hand, Wang/Yue began confidently and an infuriating serve into the net by Seyfferth ended the first set 21-16.

Seyfferth regained her composure to start the second with an ace and the set continued on much closer than the first. Yue's powerful serving also produced a number of aces and it was the final critical serve landing out for Germany that gave China the win 2-0 (21-16, 21-19).

"It's too hot today. Playing under such conditions is a real test for us, especially after we played two games yesterday. Compared to yesterday, we didn't play very well, as we went slowly into the game. I felt pain in my knee at the beginning, so I dared not to jump too much, but as the match went on, I felt much better with my knee," said Yue.

"If you hit top form now, it may not be a good thing, because it's just the pool stage. We need to save the best for the following single elimination rounds.

"It's the first stop of the new season, so actually, we didn't put too much pressure on ourselves. Wang Fan and I are entering the second year as a team on the World Tour. For us, the main task for the whole season is to improve teamwork," she added.

The win for Wang/Yue placed them top of Pool A and directly into the second round of the knock-outs played on Saturday.

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