Stare Jablonki, Poland, June 13, 2013 – Defending champions Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego of Brazil are set to head up the men’s seeds at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Stare Jablonki, while China’s Chen Xue and Zhang Xi lead the women’s seedings following the confirmation of teams for the FIVB's premier beach volleyball event.
Since winning gold at the last World Championships in Rome 2011, Alison and Emanuel added the 2011 FIVB World Tour title and then left the London 2012 Olympic Games with silver medals in their luggage.
Chen Xue and Zhang Xi are two of the most consistent players on the women's World Tour in recent years. They were also on the podium at Rome 2011, when they claimed bronze, to add to the bronze medals that they won in front of their home fans at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
Behind the Brazilian men's duo are two USA teams; Phil Dalhausser, 2007 FIVB world champion and 2008 Olympic champion, and his new partner Sean Rosenthal, while Rosenthal’s former partner Jacob Gibb and Casey Patterson are third seeds. Both teams have won tournaments this year and will be keen to add to their medal collections.
Former FIVB U21 world champions Pedro Salgado and Bruno Schmidt are the second-highest ranked Brazilian team, in fourth, while London 2012 bronze medallist Janis Smedins and his new partner Aleksandrs Samoilovs are seeded fifth.
London 2012 silver medallists and 2009 world champions April Ross and Jennifer Kessy are seeded second in the women’s draw, while the Netherlands fast-improving pair, Sophie van Gestel and Madelein Meppelink are seeded third.
The women’s fourth seeds are Germany’s Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler and Maria Antonelli and Agatha Bednarczuk of Brazil are seeded fifth.
The World Championships has used the new, modified entry process that started at the Rome Grand Slam where the National Federation ranking uses only the points of players who have played in one of the first four events on the FIVB Beach Volleyball seasonal calendar (The Fuzhou Open and the Shanghai, Corrientes and The Hague Grand Slam.
A total of 45 teams are registered with three wild cards per gender including to the Ukraine's Popov Sergiy and Valeriy Samoday, Spain's Inocencio Lario Carrillo and Miguel Angel de Amo, and Jaroslaw Lech and Damian Wojtasik from Poland in the men's draw and the Netherlands' Laura Bloem and Rebekka Kadijk, Inguna Minusa and Inga Ikauniece of Latvia and Poland's Daria Paszek and Katarzyna Kociolek in the women's competiton.
The total number of countries represented at the tournament is 30 with 23 different countries in the women's draw and 21 in the men's.
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships Tournament Page
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships Men's Entry ListFIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships Women's Entry List