Cursed three years ago in Tokyo, Tanja Hüberli and Nina Brunner can dream of gold in Paris. The Swiss duo made it to the semifinals with an outstanding performance.
The Lucerne native and the Zurich resident defeated Americans Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng 21-18, 21-19 to ‘avenge’ the earlier loss of Esmée Böbner and Zoé Vergé-Dépré in the first quarterfinal. And, above all, to erase the painful memory of those five squandered match points three years ago in the same Olympic tournament during a fratricidal round of 16 against Anouk Vergé-Depré and Joana Mäder.
This time, the nerves of Tanja Hüberli and Nina Brunner held out. Tanja Hüberli executed the fatal block on the match point. Meanwhile, Nina Brunner, targeted throughout the match by the Americans, produced numerous outstanding moments both in attack and defense, delivering perhaps one of the best matches of her career.
Victorious in all five matches played since the start of the tournament without losing a set, Tanja Hüberli and Nadia Brunner will face the winners of the match between the Spanish Daniela Alvarez/Tania Moreno and the Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes/Brandie Wilkerson in the semifinals. If they continue to play at the same level, there is no need for them to panic…
/ATS