FIVB Women World Tour 2012

  • Sunday April 15th, Brasilia : beginning of the FIVB World Women Tour 2012
    ... 13 tournaments this year.
    London Olympic Games don't take part in this tour.
    Two events have been lately cancelled, Stavanger and Québec, due to financial problems according to the managing directors.


  • Today is the great day !
    Country quota games :
    probably with 7 Brazilian teams
    and 2 German : Bieneck - Grossner and Borger-Büthe.
    ...
    And tomorrow qualification tournament with a pretty bunch of teams coming from all the world.



  • Eight teams from seven countries fill field for women's main draw at Brasília Open
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    Brasília, Brazil, April
    16, 2012—Following three rounds of qualification tournament matches,
    women’s teams from Brazil, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Mexico
    and Netherlands advanced the final eight teams to Tuesday’s start of the
    main draw tournament at the US$380,000 Brasília Open, the
    season-opening event of the 2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour
    which is being held in the capital city of Brazil.


    The Netherlands advanced two
    teams to complete the 32-team field in the women’s main draw tournament
    while the other countries each have one more team in the main draw.
    Moving forward from the Netherlands are Madelein Meppelink/Sophie van
    Gestel (13th-seeded qualification team) and Merel Mooren/Jantine van der
    Vlist (Q10). The additional six teams advancing are Brazil’s Raquel
    Pelluci/Maria Clara Salgado (Q1), Germany’s Karla Borger/Britta Buthe
    (Q6), Great Britain’s Lucy Boulton/Denise Johns (Q1 8, Italy’s Daniela
    Gioria/Giulia Momoli (Q3), Japan’s Takemi Nishibori/Satoko Urata (Q12),
    Mexico’s Bibiana Candelas/Mayra Garcia (Q1 2).


    With the season-opening event on
    the 2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour calendar in Brazil, The
    road to the 2012 London Olympic Games has resumed as 16 of the 24 teams
    in each gender will be determined through year-long Olympic rankings
    through the FIVB SWATCH World Tour. This will be the first of nine
    double-gender events on the 2012 world tour schedule. Beach Volleyball
    at the London Olympic Games will run from July 28 to August 9.


    Celebrating the 25th anniversary
    of the first FIVB-sanctioned event (Rio de Janeiro in 1987), the
    international beach volleyball circuit begins for the fourth consecutive
    season with the US$380,000 Brasília Open will be held through Sunday
    on The Esplanada dos Ministérios in Quadrante 1 as the Brazilian capital
    is celebrating its 52nd anniversary on Saturday. The tournament is the
    first of nine double-gender events on the 2012 schedule.


    Netherland’s two advancing teams
    both looked strong in Monday’s qualifier. Meppelink/van Gestel With both
    teams receiving first-round byes they both won their second and third
    round matches in two sets. Meppelink/van Gestel defeated teams from
    Russia and Georgia while .Mooren/van der Vlist dispatched teams from
    Norway and China.


    “It's always good move forward to
    the main drawn of the tournament and face great teams,” said
    Netherlands’ van Gestel, who is transitioning into the pro ranks after
    earning three youth and junior world championship medals in the past
    several years. “Our team is new. We formed last July and played only
    four rounds of the FIVB SWATCH Beach Volleyball World Tour. We are
    developing our game, increasing the connection and our communication in
    the court. This was the main difficulty for us in the beginning. Now we
    are starting to feel more comfortable as a team. We understand each
    other and use our strong attack which is our best weapon.”


    With four teams already
    pre-seeded into the main draw, Brazil’s Pelluci/Salgado give the host
    country five teams following their qualifying wins over teams from
    Columbia and Poland. Brazil’s three other teams in the qualification
    tournament were all eliminated.


    “It is my first time to make a
    FIVB SWATCH World Tour main draw so I am very happy with this day,” said
    Brazil’s Pelluci following her team’s final match Monday: “We got two
    victories and a lot of hope to go forward. The atmosphere and the
    opponents are new for me. I am very fortunate and it is a fantastic
    opportunity to have a partner like Maria Clara. Despite being younger
    than me she is very experienced and gives me a lot of confidence in my
    bad moments. In the first match I was very reckless but then in the
    second one I blocked better to help the team.”


    Monday’s very busy women’s
    qualification tournament ended with a single center court match that saw
    Great Britain’s 18th-seeded Lucy Boulton/Denise Johns come from behind
    to stun USA’s second-seeded Angie Akers/Brittany Hochevar in three sets,
    in the largest seed break-through of the day. Boulton/Johns lost the
    first set 13-21, won the second 21-14. In the deciding third set, they
    jumped out to leads of 11-6 and 14-9 before ending their victory at
    15-11 in 43 minutes..


    Brazil has staged a FIVB SWATCH
    World Tour event every year since the start of the international series
    for men in 1989 and women in 1992. This will be the 34th men’s event and
    29th women’s tournament on the FIVB SWATCH World Tour held in Brazil.
    It is the 14th time that the FIVB SWATCH World Tour will have its
    season-opening event in Brazil.


    The capital city of the South
    American country has welcomed 135 men and women’s teams from 35
    countries. This event is the 272nd men’s and 233rd women’s competition
    in the history of the FIVB SWATCH World Tour. Two-time returning
    defending men’s champions in Brazil are Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers of
    the United States and the three-time defending women’s champions here
    are Juliana Felisberta Silva/Larissa Franca of Brazil. All six
    medal-winning teams from 2011 have returned to Brazil this year.


    The men’s Country Quota playoffs
    and qualification tournament will be played Tuesday and Wednesday,
    respectively. The men’s main draw rounds start Thursday for men. The
    gold medal teams in each gender in the Brasília Open will each split
    $30,000, the silver $21,000, the bronze $15,000 and fourth place
    $11,200. The women’s medal matches will be held Friday and the men’s
    medal matches will be played next Sunday.

  • All the favourite teams, except Keizer/Van Iersel, will play the third round tomorrow (Wednesday).
    In the contenders bracket, there still are some good teams. Good day for he Japanese team Urata/Take.

  • What a day for Dutch beachvolleyball !!!
    Keizer - Van Iersel won their 3 games and still are alive.
    And Meppelink - van Gestel, who defeated 3 American (2 South 1 North) teams, too !
    ....
    NB : Larissa - Juliana losed in 2 sets against the European champions.
    The same for Walsh- May against Talita - Maria Elisa.
    ...
    The most beautiful game I saw : Talita - Maria Elisa (who already) are in semi-finals vs Kessy - Ross (now out, with a second lose against Keizer - Van Iersel).

  • Geta and Marta will play for the bronze medal in 50 minutes !
    Against the best world team Juliana / Larissa, they defeated in the 3rd round in 2 straight sets. The bigger surprise of the tournament.
    Go Italia :wavy:

  • End ot he tournament his afternoon.
    Here are the final results : victory of the chinese team Xue / Zhang Xi :flower:
    Silver : Talita / Maria Elisa
    Bronze : Marta / Greta


    http://www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVo…ournCode=WBRA2012&Phase=2

  • great beginning for Greta and Marta!! :dance6: I'm so happy for them! I wish them all the best, and I hope they'll manage to go to London!!

  • And now .... :super:
    let's go to ... China !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Tomorrow (see the international timetable in fivb.org), country quotas at Sanya between Brazilian and German players.
    Important tournament, of course, for this olympic year but May / Walsh won't be in Sanya. ?(

  • And now .... :super:
    let's go to ... China !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Tomorrow (see the international timetable in fivb.org), country quotas at Sanya between Brazilian and German players.
    Important tournament, of course, for this olympic year but May / Walsh won't be in Sanya. ?(


    I think they will go only for the Grand Slams. Beijing and Shangai.

  • Yes


    Walsh and May are registered for Shangai Grand Slam next week


    They already have a lot of points ... So they will be fresher in Shangai than other teams who battled in Sanya. :mirror:

  • Well ... what's up after the qualifications and the first day of the main draw ?
    ...
    Difficult start for the Czech pair Kolocova-Slukova, beaten (19/21 at tie break ) by Monti-Hansel.
    Other favourites passed through the 3rd round.
    As several big teams are not in Sanya there are good places to take for usual outsiders : Gioria-Momoli, Schwaiger sisters (it's their come back at Sanya) or Kuhn-Zumkher, ...


    http://www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVo…ournCode=WSAN2012&Phase=2

  • The finalists of Brasilia, Xue/ Zhang Xi and Talita/Maria Elisa remain the last unbeaten teams at Sanya :win:
    I don't know if there are videos of today games somewhere.
    But if you could watch the 24th point (set 1) of Monti/Babsi vs Xue/ Zhang Xi
    and the 31th (set 2) of Talita/Maria Elisa vs Larissa/Julia ...
    you would become a beach volley fan
    :dance6: :cheesy: :obey: :dance6: :cheesy: :obey: :dance6: :cheesy:

  • And the final will be ...
    Larissa/Juliana vs Talita/ Antonelli !
    Brazilian are here ... one week after Brasilia tournament.
    Clear victory for both teams in semifinals but Xue/Zhang Xi will soon have 2 other opportunities to get a win home. :roll: