Gstaad Grand Slam plays host to lucky loser and dark horses

(BEIJING, July 24) -- Women's beach volleyball action kicked off in Gstaad, Switzerland on July 23 for the 1 to 1 Energy Grand Slam.

The top five seeds, from either China or Brazil, all won their first two matches as expected. The sixth seed, Tamsin Barnett and Natalie Cook of Australia, also were undefeated in the main draw.

The Netherlands' Mared de Vries and Sanne Keizer proved to be the lucky loser of the tournament. Benefiting from the withdrawal of a Belgian team, they won a draw for the "lucky losers" and gained entry into the main draw.

De Vries and Keizer made the most of their opportunities by winning their two main draw matches. On Thursday morning they will face Morgane Faure and Virginie Sarpaux of France.

Pool H was a "pool of dark horses", where three of the four matches were won by teams with lower rankings than their opponents.

After emerging from Tuesday's qualifier, the 24th seed, Angelica Ljungquist and Karin Lundquist of Sweden, outclassed ninth seed Muriel Graessli and Nadine Zumkehr of Switzerland 21-17, 21-14. The Swedish pair then went on to knock out eighth-seeded Sara Goller and Laura Ludwig of Germany 21-13, 21-13.

Also in Pool H, the 25-seeded twin-sisters from Finland, Emilia and Erika Nystrom, posted a straight sets win over Graessli and Zumkehr 21-10, 21-19. This victory enhances their chance of advancing to the 24-team round which starts on Thursday afternoon.