Anders Mol / Christian Sorum Norway (2) def. Julius Thole / Clemens Wickler Germany (1) 21-16, 16-21, 15-9 (1:00)
Anders Mol, Norway - “It’s a huge win. After losing yesterday and losing our streak it was kind of hard to come back. We were anxious because the Germans are good, and we lost to them in Espinho in a way that we didn’t really find out what to do against them. Losing the second set today was hard, but we kept patient and my service pressure was a little bit better in the third set and that was enough to make them play out of system.”
Christian Sørum, Norway - “We were just trying to figure out how to beat them. We won the first set and got pretty confident, but after we lost the second we started worrying a little bit. We were getting tired and they had the entire crowd behind them. Fortunately, we found a good strategy, our serving got better and that was enough for us to get a lead and win the match.”
Julius Thole, Germany - “I don’t know what changed (in the third set). It was a really high level the whole match, it was so close and at the end they had a bit better solution. Anders showed his class again, he made two or three blocks I guess. We had to play really good sideout because we didn’t make a lot of breaks. We weren’t able to do this in the third set and I think that is the reason why we lost.” (On adjustments after the first set): “We were thinking about it because we couldn’t make a block and less defense, so we tried to serve better and it worked really well, we made some aces, Clemens made a few digs and I had one or two blocks. I’m a bit disappointed we weren’t able to do that in the third set longer than 4-2.” (On playing for the bronze in the World Tour Finals): “The motivation on one side it’s not the final but on the other it’s playing in front of this home crowd. It has become such an unbelievably great tournament without Laura and Kira, nobody was expecting that, but we can play again here.” (On having to dig down for the short serves): “Yeah, (Martins) Plavins started it yesterday and afterward I think some teams will try now. It’s not a good sign, I think I have to move a lot, but I think we saw that it worked better today than yesterday’s game and think we played well. Now we are looking forward to play in the elimination round.”