An event divided Wednesday at Antalya Open

Antalya, Turkey, May 11, 2016 - With near-perfect weather conditions, the second annual Antalya Open will be a beach volleyball tournament divided as the opening women's pool play matches will be staged on the three Beach Park courts and the men's qualifier on two courts at Akdeniz University.

Quick links
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Antalya Open
Men - Qualification results
Women - Qualification results
Men - Main draw results
Women - Main draw results

Play on both sites began at 8 a.m. (local time) with the women's action featuring 32 pool play matches and 24 matches to be contested in the men's qualifier where eight teams will advance to the Main Draw in the $150,000 FIVB World Tour event.

Women's Pool H figures to be the most competitive of the eight groups where three of the four teams are listed among the top 20 pairs on the 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour ranks.  Competing in the group are No. 3 Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler of Germany (2,360 point), No. 12 Emily Day/Jennifer Kessy of the United States (1,820) and No. 19 Alexandra Jupiter/Laura Longuet of France).

Jupiter and Longuet will play both the Germans and the Americans Wednesday with the Holtwick/Semmler vs. Day/Kessy match scheduled for Thursday.  Also competing in Pool H will be No. 77-ranked Amaranta Navarro/Ester Ribera of Spain, who qualified for the Antalya Open Main Draw by defeating Finland's Essi Hasu/Anniina Parkkinen 2-1 (17-21, 21-14, 15-11) in 42 minutes.

All three teams have played each other with Day/Kessy defeating Jupiter/Longuet in a three-set Russia pool play match last week in Sochi in the only FIVB World Tour meeting between the two teams.  Later in Sochi, Holtwick and Semmler ousted Day and Kessy from the competition with a 2-0 "Sweet 16" confrontation to give the Germans a 2-1 edge in the international series between the two teams.  Holtwick and Semmler lead the FIVB series with the French 1-0 with the only meeting last September in Xiamen, China.

The German-American match will also feature two teams that are ranked third among their country’s pair seeking berths in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with a maximum of two tandems per country.  Holtwick and Semmler have 4,610 Rio points for their best 12 finishes during the qualifying process to trail German rivals Karla Borger/Britta/Buthe by 250 points.  Day and Kessy (3,980 points) are 450 points behind compatriots Lauren Fendrick/Brooke Sweat in the “Copacabana Chase”.

Other top-10 ranked teams on the 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour list playing in the Antalya Open are Isabelle Forrer/Anouk Verge-Depre of Switzerland (No. 2, 2,430 points, Pool D), 3 Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude of Germany (No. 3 tied with Holtwick/Semmler, 2,360, Pool E), Ana Gallay/Georgina Klug of Argentina (No. 5, 2,300, Pool F), Borger/Buthe (No. 6, 2,200, Pool E), Joana Heidrich/Nadine Zumkehr of Switzerland (No. 8, 2,040, Pool E), and Barbara Hansel/Stefanie Schwaiger of Austria (No. 9, 1,990, Pool A)

Other notable pairs are Taru Lahti/Riikka Lehtonen of Finland (No. 11, 1,840, Pool B), Linline Matauatu/Pata Miller of Vanuatu (No. 13, 1,710, Pool H), Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst of Germany (No. 14, 1,640, Pool A), Ekaterina Birlova/Evgeniya Ukolova of Russia (No. 15, 1,620, Pool D), Monika Brzostek/Kinga Kolosinska of Poland (No. 17, 1,440, Pool C) and Barbora Hermannova/Marketa Slukova of the Czech Republic (No. 20, 1,220, Pool C).

Representing Turkey in the women’s “money rounds” will be Merve Aktas/Esra Koksalan (Pool B), Atasoy Burcu/Selin Yurtsever (Pool H) and Resmiye Cakmak/Yaren Sencel (Pool A).  The pair of Ebru Karayilan/Aleyna Vence were eliminated in Tuesday’s qualifier by Czech Republic team of Kolocova/Kvapilova.

Three of the top four finishers from the 2015 Antalya Open (October 20-25) are in the field this week, including Hermannova/Slukova Day/Kessy and Gallay/Klug.  Hermannova and Slukova defeated Italians Marta Menegatti/Viktoria Orsi Toth 2-0 (21-15, 21-17) in the 40-minute gold medal match.  After losing in the semi-finals to the Czech girls, Day/Kessy rallied to defeated Gallay/Klug 2-1 (18-21, 21-14, 15-13) in the 62-minute bronze medal match.

The top three finishers in pool play advance to Friday's three rounds of elimination bracket competition to set the lineup for Saturday’s semi-finals and medal matches.  The men’s schedule in the FIVB World Tour event will feature a qualifier Wednesday followed by Main Draw pool play matches Thursday and Friday and elimination Saturday.  The semi-finals and medal contests will be played Sunday.  The winning teams in the Antalya Open will share the $11,000 first-place prizes.

The Antalya Open is the part of the qualifying process for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games to be played on iconic Copacabana August 6-18.  This week’s event will be the 25th of 28 women’s events in the Rio qualifying process and the 27th of 30 men’s stops.