Shanghai, China, April 30, 2008 - After three rounds and 28 matches, eight teams from Brazil, Canada, Georgia, Germany, Italy Mexico, the Netherlands and the Ukraine advanced from a 36-team Qualification Tournament to the women's Main Draw here Wednesday for the US$350,000 China Shanghai Jinshan Open.
With the men completing three rounds and 32 matches in the Main Draw Wednesday at the second of 16 double gender events on the 2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar, the women will begin competing for "money" Thursday leading to Saturday's semi-finals and Sunday's medal matches.
The men's final matches will be Saturday at the Jinshan Beach Stadium on Shihua Xincheng Road in the Jinshan District of Shanghai. The winning teams in the first of three international Beach Volleyball tournaments in China this season will share the $28,000 first-place prizes. Other Chinese stops including the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in August and the 2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour season finale in November in Sanya.
Leading Wednesday's qualifiers were the top-seeded Salgado sisters as the Brazilians scored wins over teams from Russia and France to advance to the Main Draw. Three other teams from the South American country will be competing in the Main Draw, including 2005 China Shanghai Jinshan Open winners Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca.
Other Brazilian teams in the "money" rounds are Talita Antunes/Renata Ribeiro and Shelda Bede/Ana Paula Connelly. Talita and Renata claimed the bronze medal at the 2006 China Shanghai Jinshan Open while Shelda and Ana Paula were on the 2005 Jinshan Beach podium with Juliana and Larissa, but with different partners.
Host China failed to earn a fifth Main Draw berth as Zhongji Jiang and Jieqiong Jin dropped their third of three matches in the single-elimination qualifier as 14th-seeded Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler of Germany eliminated their 30th-seeded rivals 21-16 and 21-13 in 31 minutes. Earlier Wednesday, Jiang and Jin ousted tandems from Spain and third-seeded Mika Teru Saiki and Chiaki Kusuhara of Japan.
Headlining the Chinese effort will be the teams of Jie Wang/Jia Tian and Chen Xue/Xi Zhang as both have captured China Shanghai Jinshan Open gold medals. Xue and Zhang defeated, Wang and Tian to claim the 2007 Jinshan Beach gold medal. Wang and Tian regrouped last May to defeat Nila Ann Hakedal and Ingrid Torlen of Norway in the championship match. Other Chinese teams are Lu Wang/Man Zuo and Yuan Yue/Wenwen Zhang.
Other teams qualifying for Wednesday's women's Main Draw were fifth-seeded Cristine "Saka" Santanna/Andrezza "Rtvelo" Martins of Georgia, sixth-seeded Annie Martin/Dana Cooke of Canada, ninth-seeded Lucilla Perrotta/Daniela Gattelli of Italy, 15th-seeded Mered de Vries/Sanne Keizer of the Netherlands, 20th-seeded Galyna Osheyko/Svitlana Baburina of the Ukraine and 23rd-seeded Mayra Garcia/Bibiana Candelas of Mexico.
The China Shanghai Jinshan Open is the 19th qualifying event for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games as the process started here in May 2007 and concludes July 20 after a 2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour stop in Marseille, France. With the Beijing field featuring 24 teams per gender with no more than two tandems per country, a pair's best SWATCH eight finishes will be considered when determining the field for the Summer Games in Beijing.
After the China Shanghai Jinshan Open, the women are idle for a week before playing the next two weeks in Korea (Seoul, May 13-18) and Japan (Osaka, May 20-25) before heading to Barcelona (May 26-June 1) to join the men. |
