Austria and Australia are often confused but there was no mistaking the quality of the teams playing on Center Court in the second men's qualifier of the day. In the end, Australia's Thomas Hodges and Zachary Schubert had the upper hand and defeated home duo Robin Seidl and Laurenz Leitner 2-1 (17-21, 21-13, 15-13).
Beach veteran Seidl was paired for the first time with Leitner as his partner Moritz Pristauz is out due to injury. But you wouldn't have guessed this, seeing how the duo combined to set up winning points.
An impressive display in the first set was followed by Australia's resurgence. This resulted in a thrilling third set with plenty of drama. Perhaps inspired a different sport, the ball properly flew out of the stadium at one point after an Austrian effort to save it with a kick. Australia was also shown a yellow card for contesting a referee decision. But the Aussies stayed cool to take the win and move on to the next round of qualifying.
A shout-out also to the fans: with temperatures already above 30 degrees Celsius at 11 a.m. and expected to go up even further during the day, the crowd was regularly sprayed down with water but lost none of its energy!
