Prague, Czech Republic, May 20, 2015 - With light showers in the area and temperatures in the mid-50s (13°C), the US$75,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Prague Open 2015 started here Wednesday with 20-year old twins from the Ukraine posting a seed-break-through to guarantee their best-ever finish on the FIVB World Tour.
Seeded 25th in the 32-team Prague Open qualifier, the Makhno twins (Inna and Iryna) scored a 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) victory in 33 minutes over eighth-seeded Essi Hasu and Anniina Parkkinen of Finland to secure at least a 33rd-place finish in this week’s international Beach Volleyball event on the sands of Stvanice Stadium.
Competing in their fourth FIVB World Tour event together, the Makhnos placed 41st-seeded in last week’s Swiss stop in Lucerne where the Ukrainians lost their only match to a Canadian pair. With the win, the Makhnos play ninth-seeded Brittany Hochevar and Heather McGuire of the United States for a spot in the “money” rounds. The Americans posted a three-set win over a French pair in their opening match Wednesday.
Wednesday’s first round of qualification matches featured seven seed-breakthroughs highlighted by a confrontation between a Dutch and Polish team that are scheduled to compete next in the 2015 FIVB “senior” Beach Volleyball World Championships in The Netherlands.
With top-seeded Barbara Hansel and Stefanie Schwaiger ousting a 32nd-seeded Croatian pair in their first match Wednesday, the Austrians will face 17th-seeded Jantine van der Vlist and Sophie van Gestel after The Netherlands tandem defeated 16th-seeded Karolina Baran and Jagoda Gruszczynska of Poland 2-0 (21-12, 21-13) in 32 minutes.
Other seed-break-throughs in the first round of elimination Wednesday were by 18th-seeded Melinda Adelin/Ophelie Lusson of France, 19th-seeded Rimke Braakman/Jolien Sinnema of The Netherlands, 22nd-seeded Ningya Tang/Yuanyuan Wang of China, 27th-seeded Ayumi Kusano/Shinako Tanaka of Japan and 27th-seeded Nina Betschart/Nicole Eiholzer of Switzerland. Kusano and Tanaka’s win was their second this week after the pair had to win a country quota playoff match Tuesday to earn a spot in Wednesday’s qualifier.
Featuring women’s competition for the second-straight season, the sixth annual Prague Open continues Wednesday with the final eight qualifying matches. The 32-team Prague Open Main Draw begins Thursday at 10 a.m. with the first two rounds pool play.
Friday’s Prague Open schedule features the final round of pool play along with the first round of elimination where the second- and third-place finishers in each pool meet following a “draw” to determine the afternoon match schedule. The pool winners earn an elimination “bye” and will play matches starting at 10 a.m. Saturday.
The third women’s even on the 2015 FIVB World Tour calendar, 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.