The beauty of beach volleyball illuminated at #FTLMajor

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Epic action and an unbelievable atmosphere under the floodlights

It was a first night under floodlights to remember at the Fort Lauderdale Major as beach fans were treated to a special night of beach volleyball on Center Court on Wednesday evening.

The highlight of the first ever night session in Swatch Major Series history went down a storm with five thrilling matches entertaining the packed crowd at Fort Lauderdale Beach Park.

First up to experience the unique atmosphere was Olympic champion Kira Walkenhorst and Julia Groβner. The Germans looked on course for an easy win against new Canadian team Pischke/May but the North Americans hit back to level the set score. However, the Germans showed their class and got the job done in the decider to make it two wins from two.

As the bright lights lit up the Beach Village, more fans crammed into the Center Court to settle down and watch two American teams do their thing. Many had waited all today to catch a glimpse of Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross and the US stars didn’t disappoint as the top seeds cruised to a straight sets victory over Dutch duo Marleen van Iersel and Manon Nummerdor-Flier.

Kerri and April didn't hang about in their 2-0 win on Center Court.

The men’s top seeds, Lucena/Dalhausser, had already recorded one victory earlier in the day and they made it two out of two with a crushing 36-minute victory over Austrians Doppler/Horst.

It was a much closer affair in the penultimate game of the night. Veteran Brazilian legends Ricardo and Harley Marquez looked set for victory against Russian starlets Stoyanovskiy/Yarzutkin after taking the first set in true samba style. But the old heads didn’t count on a wonderful comeback from the young pretenders as the Russians stormed back to triumph in three sets.

It was fitting that the final game of a memorable and historic night belonged to the USA as Brooke Sweat and Summer Ross thumped Germans Ittlinger/Mersmann in straight sets to send the home fans home happy.

We’ll be doing it all over again on Thursday so remember to check out our BeachStream service to watch all the games live plus the chance to view them back again on demand.