São Paulo, Brazil, October 10, 2013 – Currently leading the 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour/FIVB Open point standings, Brazil’s Bruno Schmidt/Pedro Salgado are hoping for more this week at the $440,000 FIVB São Paulo Grand Slam double-gender tournament. Not only are they striving for the men’s gold medal, but they also the no. 1 FIVB World Ranking where they are current no. 2. The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour is back in Brazil for the 27th consecutive year. Teams from Brazil, Chile, Italy and Norway pulled off the biggest upsets of the day.
Brazil’s Schmidt/Salgado won the gold medal at this year’s FIVB Hague Grand Slam in the Netherlands in mid-June and their consistency has kept them at the top of the point leadership on the FIVB World Tour. In the FIVB World Rankings, they are currently second to Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins who have earned two FIVB World Tour gold medals this season.
With the second and final third round of men’s pool play Thursday, the women will play their final pool play match to determine the 24 teams in each gender who advance to Friday’s start of single elimination. Following the completion of Pool Play on Thursday, the single-elimination bracket for the final 24 teams in each gender begins on Friday morning.
Following Thursday’s conclusion of pool play, Friday will see the round of 24, round of 16 and quarterfinal matches in each gender as the 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour has resumed in South America after a six-week respite. With the event being held for the first time in São Paulo the purpose-built site is located on the expansive grounds of Parque Villa Lobos on the west side of the massive city.
Brazil’s second-seeded Schmidt/ Salgado won their opening pool play match Wednesday in two sets over France’s Andy Ces/Edouard Rowlandson, 21-13, 21-15 in 33 minutes.
Brazil’s Schmidt/Salgado are leading the 2013 FIVB World Tour/FIVB Open point standings and are currently no. 2 in the FIVB world ranking, 410 points behind Latvia’s Samoilovs/Smedins heading into the final part of the current campaign.
Following their opening win Wednesday, Schmidt said, “Our goal is start well, showing our weapons since the first match. The FIVB World Tour is full of long, high-level tournaments and we are looking for something huge. This stage is the most important of the season for us. That’s why I asked the entertainment people to play our songs all the time. That’s an extra support for us and we got off to a good start today against the French team.”
Salgado also expressed his feelings following his team’s victory, saying, “This is a very important tournament for me and Bruno. We are second in the FIVB World Ranking right now, leading the FIVB World Tour points, and for sure our biggest goal this year is to finish on top this year. We know that it won’t be easy because Latvia is ahead us in the world rankings and they are a very good team. But I think Bruno and I still have a great chance. We’re playing at home and that is different. Once you have the support of the fans of your country, it makes a lot of difference. I hope we can use this to win here.”
Here is a link to an FIVB YouTube video with Salgado from São Paulo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSnKoZ1MC8E&feature=youtu.beThe 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour is comprised of 10 Grand Slam events and the 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships. Not part of the World Tour but counting towards FIVB points/earnings are five Open events (four double-gender tournaments and one women-only). The last of 10 2013 FIVB World Tour Grand Slams will be in China Oct. 22-27 at the double-gender $440,000 FIVB Xiamen Grand Slam.