Prague, Czech Republic, May 19, 2015 - The women’s FIVB World Tour returns to the Czech Republic capital for the second-straight season where Czech Republic Olympians Kristyna Kolocova and Marketa Slukova will be defending their title when the US$75,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Prague Open 2015 begins play here Tuesday afternoon with country quota playoff competition.
Tuesday’s playoff action will set the field for Wednesday’s 32-team qualification tournament as the international circuit visits Prague for the sixth time. The third 2015 FIVB World Tour stop for women will be held on the purpose-built site on the sands of Stvanice Stadium. The first four Prague Opens featured men’s competition where teams from Brazil and the United States topped the podium.
TUESDAY TIMETABLE
Depending on mid-day registration, teams from Belarus, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, Norway, Thailand and the United States will be competing for the last eight berths in Wednesday’s qualifier. The country quota playoff matches are scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. at Stvanice.
WEDNESDAY’S QUALIFIER
The one-day, 32-team single-elimination qualification tournament will start at 10 a.m. Wednesday where the 24-match schedule will determine the final eight spots in the 32-team Prague Open Main Draw. The “money” rounds start at 10 a.m. Thursday, 9 a.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday where both pool play and elimination matches will be played. A total of 82 women’s teams from 34 countries selected by their national federations were officially entered in the Prague Open.
SUNDAY’S SERVICE
The Prague Open concludes Sunday with the playing of the semi-final and medal matches. The semi-finals will be played at 11 a.m. followed by the third-place match at 3 p.m. and the gold medal finale at 4 p.m. The winning team will share the $11,000 first-place prize with $8,000 for second, $6,000 for third and $4,500 for fourth-place.
CZECH REPUBLIC FIVB BEACH VOLLEYBALL HISTORY
In last year’s first women’s Prague Open, Kolocova and Slukova delighted the host country fans by winning the Czech Republic’s first-ever FIVB World Tour gold medal by winning the three-set finale over Germans Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler. Both tandems are entered in the competition this week.
While this will be second women’s-only FIVB World Tour stop in the Czech Republic, Prague has previously held FIVB World Tour Open men’s events in 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012. The Czech Republic has also held four FIVB Challenger men’s events, three in Brno and one in Karlovy Vary.
CZECH CHAMPIONS
The 2015 Prague Open will be Kolocova and Slukova’s 57th FIVB World Tour event as the Czech Republic women started competing on the international circuit towards the end of the 2009 season where they placed ninth at the Austrian Grand Slam in Klagenfurt where they qualified for the Main Draw and won three of five Main Draw matches in their first event.
Kolocova and Slukova validated their 2014 Prague success four weeks later in Berlin where they defeated Brazilians Maria Antonelli and Juliana Felisberta in the three-set finale. Last year was the Czech girl’s best season on the FIVB World tour where they posted three podium placements and five “final four” finishes in nine international starts.
As the eighth-ranked team on the 2014 FIVB World Tour, Kolocova and Slukova netted US$191,000 in earnings along with posting a 39-12 match mark. For their career, Kolocova and Slukova have won 167 matches (61.6 winning percent) along with sharing $514,650 to rank 17th on the all-time list.
CZECH REPUBLIC ENTRIES
Joining Kolocova and Slukova in the Prague Open Main Draw for the host country are Martina Bonnerová/Barbora Hermannová and Sona Novakova Dosoudilova/Lenka Hajeckova. The Czech Republic team of Martina Jakubsova/Diana Zolnercikova have already secured a spot in the qualifier.
The final Czech Republic team in the qualifier will be filled by the winner of the country quota playoff. Host country pairs in the playoffs are Kristyna Adamcikova/Anna Komarkova, Tereza Jarosova/Eliska Novakova, Eliška Gálová/Sarka Nakladalova and Karolina Rehácková/Magdalena Dostalova.