Adrian Heidrich and Mirco Gerson were the men in Swiss victory as they won their two matches in the final day of the event – 2- 0 (21-15, 22-20) over Stefan Boermans/Yorick de Groot and 2-1 (21-16, 15-21, 15-12) against Christiaan Varenhorst/Ruben Penninga in the golden match. The Netherlands forced the golden match with Varenhorst and Penninga’s 2-0 (21-18, 21-13) win over Swiss Marco Krattiger and Florian Breer.
“We were on fire,” Heidrich said after the final match. “The difference from the second to the third set was that we made fewer mistakes on serve. The atmosphere here was so nice, the Dutch always give their best. After such a long break without public, it seemed almost the old normal. Now, we have three weeks before going to Tokyo. We didn’t make plans, we first wanted to secure the Olympic spot.”
Dutch fans, however, didn’t leave the stadium frustrated as they saw their countrywomen dominate Russia and guarantee a second team to join 2018 European champions Sanne Keizer and Madelein Meppelink in Tokyo.
Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam were the ones responsible for the Dutch qualification as, just like Heidrich and Gerson, they won both of their matches of the day – 2-0 (21-14, 21-13) against Ksenia Dabizha/Daria Rudykh and a 2-1 (21-15, 15-21, 15-11), golden set triumph against Mariia Bocharova and Maria Voronina, who had forced the extra match with their 2-0 (21-18, 21-15) triumph over Marleen van Iersel and Pleun Ypma.
