Paris SWATCH FIVB World Tour qualifier proves helpful & harmful

(June 17, 2008) -- The women's Qualification Tournament for the US$600,000 Henkel Grand Chelem proved to be helpful or harmful for several teams here Tuesday as Beach Volleyball pairs from eight countries advanced to the "money" rounds for this week's SWATCH FIVB World Tour stop.

With the Henkel Grand Chelem returning to the Champs de Mars site for the fourth-straight year, the Tuesday's qualifying teams will join 23 other tandems in the Main Draw rounds for the eighth SWATCH FIVB World Tour women's event in 2008 that is being played within walking distance of the Eiffel Tower.

With Henkel Grand Chelem pool play being featured Wednesday, a ninth spot for the "money" rounds will be determined later Tuesday evening at the technical meeting. A "Lucky Loser' draw will be held to fill a spot vacated after the start of the women's competition Monday with a late withdrawal due to a back injury for Germany's Rieke Abeler-Brink, who was scheduled to play this week with Hella Jurich.

Success Tuesday was defined by teams still in the chase for possible spots in the Beijing 2008 Olympics as the Henkel Grand Chelem provides additional qualifying points for the Summer Games as compared to a SWATCH FIVB World Tour "open' event.

Qualifying teams Tuesday still seeking to improve their Olympic standings are Susanne Glesnes/Kathrine Maaseide of Norway, Sara Montagnolli/Sabine Swoboda of Austria, the Nystrom twins (Emilia and Erika) of Finland, Simone Kuhn/Lea Schwer of Switzerland, Liesbeth Mouha/Liesbet Van Breedam of Belgium and Andrezza "Rtvelo" Martins/Cristine "Saka" Santanna of Georgia.

The top-seeded Salgados (Carolina and Maria Carla) also advanced to the Henkel Grand Chelem Main Draw after winning their second match in two days on the Champs de Mars courts. The Brazilian sisters' 21-18, 19-21 and 15-12 Main Draw qualifying win over Hana Klapalova and Tereza Petrova denied the 17th-seeded Czech Republic pair an opportunity to improve their Beijing point total.

Other teams losing in the qualifier that failed to improve their Olympic point totals were Rebekka Kadijk/Merel Mooren of the Netherlands, Chiaki Kusuhara/Mika Teru Saiki of Japan, Inese Jursone/Inguna Minusa of Latvia, Daniela Gattelli/Lucilla Perrotta of Italy, Dana Cooke/Annie Martin of Canada, Marie-Andree Lessard/Sarah Maxwell of Canada, Heidi Ilustre/Diane Pascua of the Philippines, Eiko Koizumi/Shinako Tanaka of Japan and Ester Alcon/Olga Matveeva of Spain.

Although Kusuhara and Teru Saiki are ranked 21st on the Beijing points list with 1,620 points, the Japanese pair has a 180-point cushion heading into the final three-plus qualifying events for the 2008 Olympics. Kusuhara and Teru Saiki dropped their first match Tuesday to German Country Quota winners Jana Kohler and Ilka Semmler, who advanced to the Main Draw with a three-set win over a team from Sweden.

The fifth double gender event on the 2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar, the men's Henkel Grand Chelem Country Quota match was Tuesday with Kay Matysik and Stefan Uhmann of Germany advancing to Wednesday's qualifier in the midst of the women's pool play schedule.

The men's Henkel Grand Chelem Main Draw starts Thursday as the semi-finals for both genders will be played Saturday to set the schedule for all four medal matches to be played Sunday. The final two teams in each gender will be competing for a share of the $43,500 first-place prizes.

(Credit: FIVB. Click here for further information.)