Moscow, Russia, May 25, 2015 - If it is Monday, it must be Moscow as the third of five-straight weeks of competition in Europe began here Monday in the Russian capital with men’s and women’s country quota matches for the first of five Grand Slam events on the 2015 international calendar.
Being played at the Vodny Stadium Beach Sports Center that is 14-kilometers (nine miles) northeast from the Kremlin and Red Square, the US$800,000 Moscow Grand Slam is the fourth qualifying event for women and the third for men for the Rio 2016 Olympics as most of the leading candidates for the South American Summer Games will be competing for the $57,000 first-place prizes for each gender.
With the Main Draws for both men and women starting Wednesday, Monday’s action set the field for Tuesday’s qualification tournament for both genders with 32 pairs in both preliminary rounds with a total of 48 matches scheduled on the Vodny Stadium Beach Sports Center courts.
On the women’s side, the German matches between Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude and Victoria Bieneck/Julia Grossner was the featured country quota clash. Despite their No. 2-ranking on the FIVB World Tour standings, Laboureur and Sude dropped a 2-1 (14-21, 21-15, 16-14) decision to Bieneck and Grossner in 42 minutes.
Other winners from Monday advancing to the women’s qualification tournament were Viktoryia Shalayeuskaya/Viktoryia Siakretava of Belarus, Carolina Horta/Liliane Maestrini of Brazil, Julie Gordon/Brandie Wilkerson of Canada, Magdalena Dostalova/ Karolina Rehackova of the Czech Republic, Khanittha Hongpak/Rumpaipruet Numwong of Thailand and Jennifer Fopma/Summer Ross of the United States.
Fopma and Ross, who placed fifth last week at the Prague Open and the fourth-ranked pair on the 2015 world tour standings, spent the most time on the sand Monday as the Americans had to win a pair of matches. After defeating Brittany Hochevar/Heather McGuire 2-1 (22-24, 21-19, 15-7) in 52 minutes, Fopma and Ross scored a 2-0 (21-18, 21-15) victory in 33 minutes over Lane Carico/Kim DiCello.
The three-match men’s country quota playoffs featured American and Brazilian pairs while the women’s eight-match schedule had teams from Belarus, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Thailand and the United States. Advancing from the men’s playoff Monday were Vitor Felipe/Alvaro Filho of Brazil and Theo Brunner/Nick Lucena of the United States.
One of the top-seeded teams in next month’s FIVB “senior” Beach Volleyball World Championships in The Netherlands (June 26-July 5), Vitor Felipe and Alvaro Filho survived a three-setter with compatriots Bruno de Paula and Hevaldo Moreira by winning 2-1 (21-16, 19-21, 15-13) in 56 minutes. Alvaro earned a silver medal with legendary Ricardo Santos at the 2013 FIVB World Championships in Stare Jablonki, Poland.
After this week’s event, the FIVB World Tour’s first “Major Series” stops are set for Croatia (Poreč, June 1-7) and Norway (Stavanger, June 8-14) before international circuit crosses the Atlantic for the final world championship “tune up” in the United States for the St. Petersburg Grand Slam in Florida (June 15-21).