Chinese duo Wang Fan and Yue Yuan held off Isabelle Forrer/Anouk Verge-Depre of Switzerland 24-22, 18-21 and 15-12 here Saturday evening for their opening win in the women's beach volleyball tournament of the Rio Games.
Trailing most of the way in the first set, Wang/Yue fought hard to level it at 17-all before beating off one set point to overtake the lead at 21-20 thanks to Wang Fan's block against Verge-Depre. Forrer/Verge-Depre withstood two set points, but Wang converted on the third with a kill.
Forrer/Verge-Depre had a strong late surge in the second set to force the tiebreaker. In the third set, Wang/Yue ran off three points in a row after a 11-all draw and held on to win the match in 67 minutes.
"We are super happy for the victory," said Yue Yuan. "We lost to them badly in our only previous encounter. So we did not expect to win, and we just tried to play our best."
"It's amazing to win my first match in my first Olympic Games," said Wang Fan.
Wang/Yue will play title favorites Kerri Walsh/April Ross in their next pool C match on Monday.
