Volleyball: Experience of Germans shows through

German teams prevailed at the New Zealand Open beach volleyball tournament in Auckland yesterday, winning the men's and women's titles.

The semifinals and finals were played in perfect conditions at the ASB Bank Tennis Centre.

The women's final proved an epic encounter, with the more experienced German combination of Martina Stoof and Helke Claasen beating promising 20-year-old Finn twins Emilia and Erika Nystrom.

The Germans dominated the first set through some strong net play from Claasen and great defensive work in the back court from Stoof, before the Nystrom sisters fought back to take the game into a third set.

The Germans opened up a 6-1 lead early in the deciding set and were able to maintain a slender lead throughout to win 15-12.

Earlier, the Nystrom twins dominated their semifinal encounter over the top-ranked New Zealand side of Lucy Todd and Susan Blundell, while the German team beat the Swiss pairing of Mirjam Keller and Martina Grossen.

The men's competition was dominated by Andy Scheuerpflug and Christoph Dieckmann, who showed why they are ranked 12th in the world.

With a game characterised by powerful serving and a strong presence at the net, Scheuerpflug and Dieckmann outclassed the New Zealand pairing of Hayden Jones and Jason Lochhead in their semifinal, before facing a sterner challenge from the top-ranked New Zealand combination of Craig Seuseu and Kirk Pitman.

Earlier, Seuseu and Pitman fought back from a set down to win their semifinal against Canadians Wes Montgomery and Scott Emslie.

With plenty of vocal crowd support, the New Zealanders triumphed 15-12 in the third set.

Seuseu and Pitman were vying to become the first New Zealand team to win a New Zealand Open.

The scores were level through the early stages of the two sets of the final, before the strong spiking and blocking of Dieckmann, and back-court pick-ups of Scheuerpflug proved too strong.

The German teams are now setting their sights on this year's Olympic Games in Athens, while the New Zealand teams will embark on an Asian tour.