Switzerland and Chinese clash in Olympic debuts

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 5, 2016 – #10 Seed, Isabelle Forrer/Anouk Verge-Depre of Switzerland plays #15 seed Fan Wang/Yuan Yue in the first Pool C match of the opening round with all four players making their Olympic Games debut.

Head to Head

Forrer/Verge-Depre have won the two previous meeting on the FIVB World Tour in 2014 and 2015.  The first meeting at the 2014 Klagenfurt Grand Slam was a forfeit due to injury in pool play and the second was a 21-14 and 21-17 win by the Swiss in 32 minutes at the Olsztyn Grand Slam in August, 2015.  The Chinese duo defeated Isabelle and Anouk in the Continental Cup Finals in 2012 to determine the final entries in the London Olympic Games.  Wang/Yue won 21-15 and 22-20 in 37 minutes as the two countries met in pool play and then won the golden set 18-16 in 14 minutes to give China a 3-2 win.

Historically the #10 seed has won the last three of the four meetings in the Olympic Games, with all needing a third set to decide the winner.  Two of those matches featured lopsided first set wins with Australia’s Tamsin Hinchley/Natalie Cook defeating Russia’s Alexandra Moiseeva/Natalya Uryadova in Beijing (2008), 21-8, 19-21, and 15-12 in 55 minutes and the Czech Republic’s Kristyna Kolocova/Marketa Slukova recovering from a 8-21 opening set loss to defeat Austria’s Doris and Stefanie Schwaiger, 21-13 and 15-13 in London (2012). The 15th seeds only win was in Sydney (2000) when France’s Anabelle Prawerman/Cecile Rigaux upset Maike Friedrichsen/Danja Musch of Germany, 16-14 in one hour 47 minutes, the second longest women’s match in Olympic Games history.  

Isabelle Forrer/Anouk Verge-Depre, Switzerland, Seed #10, Pool C, Qualified 12th with 4,640 Points in the 2015-16 Olympic qualification period

• Isabelle: March 28, 1982 (34y4m9d), 178 cm (5’10”), 64 kg (142 lbs.), Hometown St. Gallen, 116th FIVB World Tour event (ranks …

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