Xiamen,
China, October 7, 2014 – USA’s Tealle Hunkus and Kendra Vanzwieten earn a bye
directly into Thursday’s main draw as top seeded qualifiers at the 2014 FIVB
Beach Volleyball World Tour Xiamen Open. The FIVB World Tour visits Xiamen for
the second consecutive year and the $150,000 Xiamen Open is the third FIVB
event in China this year.
Hunkus/Vanzwieten
play in their first major tournament together and a spot in the main draw may
pit them against the likes of favourites Juliana Felisberta Silva and Maria
Antonelli from Brazil. Juliana/Antonelli top the 2014 FIVB World Season
Rankings and have seen incredible form this year with 64 match wins, the most
on the FIVB World Tour in 2014.
Hunkus/Vanzwieten
proceed directly into the main draw along with Katarzyna Kociolek and Jagoda
Cruszczynska (POL), Dorota Strag and Karolina Baran (POL), Ester Ribera Boter
and Amaranta Fernandez Navarro (ESP) and Jenny Heinemann and Anika Krebs (GER).
Six
teams will battle for the three remaining main draw spots on Wednesday beginning
with Keiko Urata and Yui Nagata of Japan up against Australia’s Jordan Mowen
and Justine Mowen.
Xiamen 2014 men
All eight
lucky men’s qualifiers proceed directly into Wednesday’s main draw: Likejiang HA and Jian
Bao (CHN), Iver Andreas Horrem and Geir Eithun (NOR), Sean Faiga and Ariel
Hilman (ISR), Yannick Salvetti and Jean Baptiste Daguerre (FRA), Simon
Fecteau-Boutin and Alex Corsi Caya (CAN), Yasuo Nakaya and Daitsuke Matsumoto
(JPN), Hitoshi Murakami and Takumi Takahashi (JPN) and Keisuke Shimizu and
Junki Hatabe (JPN).
Turkey’s
Volkan Gögtepe and Murat Giginoglu enter the main draw with most points coming off
the back of their best result to date with a fifth place finish at the FIVB São
Paulo Grand Slam just two weeks ago. Men’s main draw pool matches begin on
Wednesday.
With the Grand Slam portion of the 2014 FIVB World Tour
now complete, the tour continues after Xiamen with four double-gender FIVB Open
events along with one men-only FIVB Open tournament. The tour will travel to Argentina for the FIVB
Parana Open (Oct. 28-Nov. 2) before heading to Doha for the men-only FIVB Qatar
Open (Nov. 4-8). India will then host the double-gender FIVB Vizag Open (Nov.
25-30), before the 2014 calendar comes to a close in South Africa with the
double-gender FIVB Mangaung Open (Dec. 9-14).