Six top women seeds net SWATCH FIVB World Tour Paris 'bye'

PARIS, FRANCE, June 19, 2008 - Six of the eight top-seeded women's teams in this week's US$600,000 Henkel Grand Chelem won their pools here Thursday morning to earn "byes" for the first-round of single-elimination play in the SWATCH FIVB World Tour event.

With reigning Olympic champions Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh protecting their No. 1-seeded at the fourth annual Henkel Grand Chelem, breaking through the seed order to advance to the second-round of elimination play Thursday were 11th-seeded Tyra Turner/Rachel Wacholder of the United States and 31st-seeded Rebekka Kadijk/Merel Mooren of the Netherlands.

While Kadijk and Mooren captured Pool B to earn the No. 2 spot in the single-elimination bracket after winning all three of their group matches, Turner and Wacholder posted a 24-26, 21-15 and 16-14 win in 60 minutes over sixth-seeded Jia Tian and Jie Wang of China to capture Pool F in a final group match Thursday.

Other teams advancing from pool play with first-round "byes" are third-seeded Ana Paula Connelly/Shelda Bede of Brazil, fourth-seeded Nicole Branagh/Elaine Youngs of United States, fifth-seeded Chen Xue/Xi Zhang of China, seventh-seeded April Ross/Jennifer Boss of United States and eighth-seeded Renata Ribeiro/Talita Antunes of Brazil.

Three-time Henkel Grand Chelem semi-finalists Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca of Brazil did not qualify for the single-elimination round for the first time in their four-plus seasons on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour together after forfeiting their final pool play match Thursday to a team from Germany.

In a match Wednesday morning against Kadijk and Mooren, the second-seeded Brazilians were leading 18-15 in the second set after the Dutch pair won the opening set 21-16. The match was stopped due to a right knee injury for Juliana as she competed at the SWATCH net against Kadijk.

With four American teams earning "byes", the top half of the Henkel Grand Chelem bracket features May-Treanor/Walsh, Branagh/Youngs and Boss/Ross along with Talita and Renata. The bottom half of the bracket has Shelda/Ana Paula and Xue/Zhang along with the Dutch and Turner/Wacholder.

A possible quarter-final match could pit the top two Chinese teams on the the SWATCH FIVB World Tour, but Tian and Wang must win two elimination matches with Xue and Zhang victorious in one match Friday on the Henkel Grand Chelem centre court at Champs de Mars within walking distance of the Eiffel Tower.

The men's Henkel Grand Chelem Main Draw starteds 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.)