News Beach volleyball 18/08/2013 Change of scenery at the Moscow Grand Slam Moscow, Russia, August 18, 2013 – The sixth editionof the FIVB Beach Volleyball Moscow Grand Slam, held from August 21-25, is allabout changes. Besides a new venue the Russian Grand Slam is also assured ofnew winners in both the men’s and women’s competition. After five previous editions at the city centre’s Poklonnaya Gora (VictoryPark), the Moscow Grand Slam has moved to a new venue this year: Vodny Stadium.It is part of a new beach sports complex, located in the outskirts of theRussian capital. Change of teams Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego, who won the last two editions, will return toMoscow, but with different partners. Since they have no chance of winning theWorld Tour anymore the Brazilian federation decided to break them up for therest of the season. They are paired up with the freshly crowned Berlin Grand Slam champions VitorFelipe and Evandro Goncalves. Alison will finish the season with Vitor Felipeand Emanuel continues with Evandro. Talita and Lima eyeing sixth GS titleIn the women’s competition the 2008, 2010 and 2012 Moscow champions Chen Xueand Zhang Xi will not return to Russia to defend their title. Leading the field are World Tour leaders Talita Antunes and Taiana Lima, eyeingtheir third consecutive and overall sixth Grand Slam title this year. For host country Russia the Anapa Open champions Evgenia Ukolova and EkaterinaKhomyakova and Konstantin Semenov and Yaroslav Koshkarev hope to make the homecrowd proud. In total more than 100 teams from over 30 different countries will compete inMoscow. The 2013 Grand Slam will be the eighth World Tour event held in Moscowas the initial events were men’s-only Opens in 1998 and 1999. St. Petersburghosted double gender events from 2005 till 2007. Brazil loves RussiaBrazil has been extremely successful in both the men and women’s events inRussia, earning a combined 24 total medals (12 in each gender), including sixmen’s and four women’s gold medals. Russia has only won one World Tour medal on home soil, in 2007 when DmitriBarsouk and Igor Kolodinsky won silver in St. Petersburg. But this year at theinaugural Anapa Open the home country won the gold and bronze medal in bothmen’s and women’s competition. The 2013 FIVB Moscow Grand Slam starts on Wednesday August 21 withqualification rounds for both men and women. Main draw starts on Thursday,featuring evening matches in the Vodny Stadium. The medal matches for bothgenders are scheduled for Sunday.FIVB Moscow Grand SlamTournament PageFIVB Moscow Grand SlamMen’s Entry ListFIVB Moscow Grand SlamWomen’s Entry ListFIVB Moscow Grand Slam Twitter Account Print this Page News {{item.LocalShortDate}} {{item.Title}} All the News