Theodore Brunner (left) and Nick Lucena (right) made a winning start at the Beach Volleyball World Championships ©Getty Images

The United States’ newly-formed duo Nick Lucena and Theodore Brunner got their Beach Volleyball World Championships campaign off to a winning start with a 2-0 win against Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Yakovlev and Alexey Kuleshov in Amsterdam.

Despite playing three tournaments together on the North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA) Tour in 2013, Lucena and Brunner only joined forces for the first time on the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) World Tour at the final event of last year, the Mangaung Open in South Africa.

This year, they have played five World Tour events and took bronze at the most recent, in St Petersburg, Florida.

“We’ve waited a while for this game and took a bit of time to get into,” said Lucena in the aftermath of a 21-10, 21-14 triumph in Pool J of the men’s competition.

“I thought defensively we struggled a little bit but we scored the points, so I’m happy.

“We’ll get another swing of things and I’m sure we’ll be better.”

Brunner added: “We’re trying to take it one game at a time and try iron things out.”

“It’s a process so we’ll just take baby steps.”

Brazil's Juliana Felisberta is making her first appearance at the Beach Volleyball World Championships since winning gold alongside fellow countrywoman Larissa Franca in Rome four years ago
Brazil's Juliana Felisberta is making her first appearance at the Beach Volleyball World Championships since winning gold alongside fellow countrywoman Larissa Franca in Rome four years ago ©Getty Images

Meanwhile, Brazil’s Juliana Felisberta and Maria Antonelli, another new partnership, comfortably overcame Algeria’s Meriem Boucheta and Louiza Bayou, 21-7, 21-0.

They next face Vanuatu’s Miller Pata and Linline Matauatu tomorrow in Pool G of the women’s competition.

“I’m so happy to be playing the World Championships again,” said Felisberta, who is making her first appearance at the biennial World Championships since winning gold alongside fellow countrywoman Larissa Franca in Rome four years ago.

“I hope we have saved some energy so that we can improve and play hard tomorrow."

Antonelli added: “We did our job very well today.

“We’ve worked hard before coming here.

“I’m proud of Juliana and I hope we improve over the next games.”

Compatriots Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos also began with a 2-0 success in Pool G of the men’s competition, but they were made to work hard for it by Ghanaian duo Edward Seidu and Jonathan Scott, who saved two match points before the 2003 world champions secured the victory.

In the same pool, Spanish pair Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera showed that they are still buoyed by winning gold at May’s FIVB Moscow Grand Slam with a straight-sets victory over Russian duo Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Artem Yarzutkin.


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