Grit was the key word at the New Zealand beach volleyball Open at Mount Maunganui's Main Beach yesterday, with German pairings squeaking through classic three-set battles to claim both the men's and women's titles.
In the men's final, Julius Brink and Jonas Reckerman took the deciding point which summed up the tightness of the title matches - Brink's serve just climbing the net to take the third set 15-13 from Norway's Martin Spinnangr and Terjei Skarland.
The German pair's moment of good fortune was reward for a staunch fightback, after dropping the opening set 21-15 and hanging tough through the see-saw second set for a 22-20 equaliser and a shot at the New Zealand title in the tour finale.
World open champions in 2009 and currently ranked third globally, baseline specialist Brink and front-court partner "Wrecker" dodged a match-point bullet in the second set, recovering from 20-19 down to force the short-format third set.
Earlier, their compatriots Sara Goller and Laura Ludwig staged a hearty recovery after going down 21-17 in the opening set to Dutch duo Marleen van Iersel and Sanne Keizer, taking the second set 21-13 and edging through 15-13 in the third.
Having won the opening event of the four-fixture national tour at Karapiro three weeks ago, Brink and Reckerman's staying power was down to their intensive six-week stint on New Zealand shores, Brink said.
"We didn't play brilliant and were a bit lucky at the end, but it was the end of our six-week 'training camp' so we were able to get there.
"The Norwegians killed us in the first set so we really had to fight in the second. Overall, what counts is that the match was a good show for the crowd. It makes up for last year here when our final was washed out by the storm."
On his first playing visit to New Zealand, Spinnangr was philosophical about Brink's unanswerable last serve and full of praise for the New Zealand beach volleyball scene.
"We've had a few close matches against those guys and we knew we had to have a strong serving game.
"It's frustrating to have a close loss but we were lucky when we had the same thing against Sweden in the quarter-final.
"I had high expectations coming to New Zealand and everything has been better than I hoped. We really like staying here at the Mount and event organisation in the tour has been excellent," he said.
The Norwegian duo are currently ranked 11th in the world.
Ludwig was obviously buzzing with the adrenaline of her and front-court specialist Goller's tight win, a reversal of the final at last week's Hamilton Open.
" It's always close against them, they are a very good serving team so we have to go out and serve hard.
"We had our best serving game of the New Zealand tour and that was the difference."
Ranked seventh in the world, Keizer and van Iersel sit two ranking spots above Goller and Ludwig and won two FIVB Swatch world tour titles last year. The German women are on their fourth New Zealand visit and are guided by Kiwi coaching guru, Craig Seuseu.
To clinch their finals spot, Keizer and van Iersel beat compatriots, Netherlands No 2 duo Madeleine Meppelink and Sophie Van Gestel 21-17 24-22.
If there was one thing missing for the centre court crowd it was a hometown pairing to cheer on in the men's final.
With Jason Lochhead and Kirk Pitman respectively realigning with fellow Tauranga players, Sam and Ben O'Dea for the series - to boost New Zealand's hopes of qualifying for the London Olympics - Lochhead was then forced to sit out the tournament after a foot infection worsened last week.
Pitman and Ben O'Dea went down in their semifinal against Skarland and Spinnangr 25-23 21-19, while Sam O'Dea paired with Brendon Heath but exited earlier in proceedings.
With the Olympic Oceania qualifier taking place at the Mount from Thursday to Saturday this week, Lochhead was confident of getting back into preparation mode today or tomorrow.