Maceió, Brazil, February 22, 2016 - With one of the South American country’s legendary figures sidelined with a hand injury, another stalwart of the Brazilian beach volleyball scene will be in action here Tuesday when the first-ever men’s event on the FIVB World Tour will be played on the Pajuçara in front of the Hotel Enseada.
Quick links•
Maceio Open website•
Qualification results - Men•
Qualification results - Women•
Main draw results - Men•
Main draw results - WomenEmanuel Rego, the winningest player in the history of the sport, withdrew from the competition Monday and was replaced by flamboyant Harley Marquez, who will now team for the first-time ever with Ricardo “The Wall” Santos for the $150,000 Maceió Open.
While Ricardo has been a regular on the FIVB World Tour since the late 1990s, Harley will be playing in his first FIVB World Tour event since August 2012 when he competed at an international stop in Poland with Benjamin Insfran.
And with the lineup change due to injury, Ricardo and Harley will be competing in Tuesday’s qualifier with 20 other pairs competing for the last eight berths for Wednesday’s opening Main Draw rounds on the Pajuçara where completion will feature both men’s and women’s matches in the pool play portion of the FIVB World Tour event.
“I am glad to be playing again internationally,” said the 41-year old Harley Monday afternoon while signing in for the competition. “It has been more than three years since I last played internationally, so I will be competing against a lot of new faces Tuesday. The qualifier will be tough, but at least there are no country quota matches.”
The last season Harley (who has won 16 FIVB World Tour gold medals in 139 career starts dating back to 1997 with his first full-season in 2002) played internationally, he partnered with soon-to-be Brazilian Olympian Evandro Gonçalves.
Competing in 10 events together for a majority of the 2012 season, Harley and Evandro had a fifth-place finish in Brasilia to open the campaign before failing to qualify for the Main Draws in eight of the next nine events with eight eliminations in the country quota rounds.
The Maceió Open will be the second event for the Ricardo/Harley partnership as the pair played together last week in a Brazilian domestic stop in Natal as Emanuel withdrew before the event with his hand injury. Ricardo and Harley placed ninth by winning one of three matches together.
“It is great to be playing with Ricardo,” said Harley, who has won only three of 34 matches since 2002 when playing against Ricardo with any of his other FIVB World Tour partners. “Since we are a new team, we will have the usual ups-and-downs in playing with each other. It was great to have a chance to play with him last week in Natal and to have some experience together before this event.”
Ricardo “The Wall” Santos played his first full World Tour season in 1998With Ricardo and Harley dropping into the qualifier, the Swiss pair of Philip Gabathuler and Mirco Gerson were elevated to the Main Draw. Also competing for Brazil in Tuesday’s men qualifier will be Gustavo Carvalhaes/Saymon Barbosa, Allison Cittadin/Vinicius Rezende, Bruno De Paula/Hevaldo Moreira, and Geroge Wanderley/Thiago Santos Barbosa.
Evandro and Pedro Solberg will be the top host country pair in the Maceió Open Main Draw and will be joined in the “money” rounds with Álvaro Filho/Vitor Felipe and Andre Loyola/Oscar Brandão.
Being played in the Brazilian coastal state of Alagoas on the Atlantic Ocean in a city of more than 1-million inhabitants, the Maceió Open concludes Sunday with the medal matches for men and women. The winning teams will share the $11,000 first-place prizes while netting 500 points that will count towards qualifying for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
With more than 100 men’s and women’s teams from 31 countries scheduled to compete, the Maceió Open is the fifth of 23 stops on the 2015-2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour calendar. The 2015-2016 international calendar started last October and November with stops in Mexico, Turkey and Qatar with an event in Iran last week.
Following the Maceió Open, the FIVB World Tour will take a week off before resuming competition March 8-13 on famed Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, the first grand slam event on the 2015-2016 international beach volleyball calendar with an $800,000 purse.
The FIVB World Tour returns to the Brazilian coast for the $150,000 Vitória Open March 15-20. After events in Qatar (Doha) and China (Xiamen and Fuzhou), the international beach volleyball circuit returns to Brazil for the $150,000 Fortaleza Open (April 26-May 1).
The fifth and final stop in Brazil on the 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour calendar will be the Rio 2016 Olympic Games August 5-21 on Copacabana Beach as the Maceió, Vitória and Fortaleza “Open” events along with the Rio Grand Slam stop are part of the important qualifying process for these first-ever Summer Games in South America.