Chinese pair win women's title at world beach volleyball

Gold medalists Chen Xue (L) and Xi Zhang (R) from China hold their trophies during the medal ceremony on day 6 of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships on July 6, 2013 in Stare Jablonki, Poland. (Getty Images)

Warsaw, July 7 (IANS) Chinese pair Xue Chen and Zhang Xi beat Karla Borge and Britta Buthe of Germany 18-21, 21-17, 21-19 in a nail-biting final to win the women’s title at the beach volleyball World Championships.

The top seeds saved one match point, falling behind 13-14 in the third set Saturday. They then had six straight match points, five of which were saved by the German team, reports Xinhua.

“When I saw the ball landed on their half and the crowd were clapping their hands for us, I realised we had won the final,” said the 24-year-old Xue Chen.

“It was a very close match, and we stayed focused all the way. We never allowed ourselves to be distracted,” she added.

The Chinese team should have won easily, according to their coach Xue Gang.

“My players are technically better, and mentally they are good too. But they made some mistakes to make the match unnecessarily tough for themselves,” he said.

Zhang Xi, 28, agreed with her coach saying: “We had some chances in the first set, but failed to grasp them. We played the match with a relaxed attitude, and I think that helped a lot.”