Lausanne, Switzerland, July 15, 2015 - With the “Road to Rio” capturing the FIVB World Tour headlines at the recently-completed World Championships in the Netherlands, the attention of beach volleyball fans around the world turned last week to the Gstaad Major, the third of three SWATCH Major Series events on the 2015 international calendar.
The world's top players will now be focusing on qualification for the World Tour Finals in Fort Lauderdale, which will take place from September 29 throught to October 4. It is the first time a World Tour Finals event is being held and the three SWATCH Major Series were part of a system to set the field for the season’s climax in Florida.
The top-ranked eight teams on both the men’s and women’s FIVB World Tour will participate in the finale along with two “wild card” selections. The maximum entry per country is two teams per gender. A record FIVB first-place prize money of $100,000 will be paid to both winners of the men's and women's competitions.
The qualification process for the SWATCH FIVB World Tour Finals started in April with the international Open stop in China and concludes on September 8, when the ten participating teams will be confirmed by the FIVB.
Four events remain in the qualifying process for the SWATCH FIVB World Tour Finals for both men and women. Following the Gstaad Major, the FIVB World Tour visits Japan (Yokohama), the United States (Long Beach), Poland (Olsztyn) and Brazil (Rio de Janeiro). The Yokohama, Long Beach and Olsztyn stops are Grand Slam events, while the Rio Open stop is a test event for the 2016 Olympic Games on Copacabana beach.
Following last week’s action in Gstaad where Brazilians topped both the men’s and women’s podium, here are the provisional rankings for the 2015 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Finals. To date, a total of nine women’s and eight men’s events have been held with four more events for each gender to be contested until the September 8 cutoff date.
Provisional team lists based on current rankings:
Women’s Ranking: Team, Country, Points1. Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, Brazil, 4,340
2. Heather Bansley/Sarah Pavan, Canada, 3,590
3. Maria Antonelli/Juliana Felisberta, Brazil, 3,400
CQ*. Talita Antunes/Larissa Franca, Brazil, 3,260
4. Louise Bawden/Taliqua Clancy, Australia, 3,100
5. Jamie Broder/Kristina Valjas, Canada, 3,040
6. Karla Borger/Britta Buthe, Germany, 2,820
7, Elsa Baquerizo/Liliana Fernandez, Spain, 2,780
8, Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude, Germany, 2,7109. Madelein Meppelink/Marleen Van Iersel, Netherlands, 2,630
10. Marta Menegatti/Viktoria Orsi Toth, Italy, 2,620
11. Fan Wang/Yuan Yue, China, 2,510
CQ. Fernanda Alves/Taiana Lima, Brazil, 2,500
CQ. Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst, Germany, 2,400
CQ. Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler, Germany, 2,340
12. Lauren Fendrick/Brooke Sweat, United States, 2,320
CQ. Melissa Humana-Paredes/Taylor Pischke, Canada, 2,300
13. Monika Brzostek/Kinga Kolosinska, Poland, 2,140
14. Ekaterina Birlova/Evgeniya Ukolova, Russia, 2,120
15. Emily Day/Jennifer Kessy, United States, 2,000
16. Joana Heidrich/Nadine Zumkehr, Switzerland, 1,980
Men’s Ranking: Team, Country, Points1. Evandro Goncalves/Pedro Solberg, Brazil, 3,640
2. Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen, Netherlands, 3,580
3. Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt, Brazil, 3,320
4. Reinder Nummerdor/Christiaan Varenhorst, Netherlands, 3,140
5. Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera, Spain, 2,820
6. Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson, United States, 2,720
7. Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter, Canada, 2,700
CQ. Emanuel Rego/Ricardo Santos, Brazil, 2,660
8. Clemens Doppler/Alexander Horst, Austria, 2,6409. Theo Brunner/Nick Lucena, United States, 2,560
10. Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel, Poland, 2,480
11. Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai, Italy, 2,440
12. Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik, Germany, 2,380
13. Ben Saxton/Chaim Schalk, Canada, 2,320
CQ. Tri Bourne/John Hyden, United States, 2,280
14. Viacheslav Krasilnikov/Konstantin Semenov, Russia, 2,0,80
14. Alexander Walkenhorst/Stefan Windscheif, Germany, 2,080
16. Youssef Krou/Edouard Rowlandson, France, 2,040
*CQ=Country Quota. The maximum entry per country is two teams per gender.