The Hague, The Netherlands, July 19, 2014 - In the sport of professional golf, Saturday is called “moving day” and it is no different in the world of Beach Volleyball as today action on Scheveningen beach will set the field for Sunday’s medal matches for the US$1-million Transavia Grand Slam presented by Bas Van de Goor Foundation.
Competition will be played on two courts at Scheveningen beach where four quarter-final matches for both men and women will be played to set the lineup for the late afternoon semi-final confrontations. The 3,000-seat Hague Beach Stadium will stage four of the quarter-final matches featuring pairs from Brazil, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Spain and the United States.
Court No. 2 outside of The Hague Beach Stadium has been scheduled for the four other quarterfinal matches where teams from Brazil, China, Germany, Poland, Switzerland and the United States will be competing for semi-final berths in the ninth men’s and 10th women’s stop on the 2014 FIVB World Tour.
With “new” championship teams to be crowned for this season’s stop in The Netherlands on the FIVB World Tour, three players that topped The Hague Beach Stadium podium in 2013 from Brazil are still contending for this year’s gold medal. Taiana Lima, who is now playing with “new” Brazilian partner Fernanda Lima, won the 2013 Transavia title with Talita Rocha. In one of Friday’s final matches, Lima and Fernanda ousted Talita and Larissa Franca from the competition in a three-set match.
Pedro Salgado, who has his two sisters (Carolina and Maria Clara) still competing in the Transavia women’s bracket Saturday, and Bruno Oscar Schmidt won the 2013 Scheveningen beach men’s crown. Both are still competing Saturday with Salgado playing with Emanuel Rego and Bruno with Alison Cerutti.
Alison, who won the silver medalist at the London 2012 Olympic Games with Emanuel, and Bruno have played their “old” partners once this season and won two-set match bronze medal last month in Berlin. In The Hague in 2013, Alison and Emanuel placed fifth together after being ousted by Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel of Poland. As the sixth-seeded team in the Transavia Grand Slam this week, Fijalek and Prudel will be challenged in Saturday’s quarter-finals by 11th-seeded Ryan Doherty and Nick Lucena of the United States.
Saturday’s play opens at 12 p.m. (local time) for women and 2 p.m. for men for the quarter-final matches. The semi-finals start at 5:15 p.m. for women and 7:30 p.m. for men. The final two teams in both gender’s competition with be competing for the gold medals and a share of the $70,000 first-place prize for each winning team. Here is Saturday and Sunday’s schedule.
No., Time, Team A, Country (Seed), Team B, Country (Seed), Round
Saturday on The Hague Beach Stadium Center Court
66, 12:00, Antonelli-Juliana BRA [6], Agatha-Seixas BRA [7], Women's Quarter-finals
67, 13:00, Kolocova-Slukova CZE [3], Maria Clara-Carol BRA [16], Women's Quarter-finals
66, 14:00, Emanuel-Pedro BRA [8], Samoilovs-Smedins, J. LAT [4], Men's Quarter-finals
68, 16:15, Herrera-Gavira ESP [5], Rosenthal-Dalhausser USA [1], Men's Quarter-finals
69, 17:15, Winner of match #65, Winner of match #66, Women's Semi-finals
70, 18:15, Winner of match #67, Winner of match #68, Women's Semi-finals
69, 19:30, Winner of match #65, Winner of match #66, Men's Semi-finals
70, 20:30, Winner of match #67, Winner of match #68, Men's Semi-finals
Saturday on Scheveningen beach Court No. 2
65, 12:00, Holtwick-Semmler GER [8], Wang Fan-Yue Y. CHN [9], Women's Quarter-finals
68, 13:00, Lima-Fernanda BRA [11], Zumkehr-Heidrich SUI [17], Women's Quarter-finals
65, 14:00, Lucena-Doherty USA [11], Fijalek-Prudel POL [6], Men's Quarter-finals
67, 16:15, Alison-Bruno BRA [3], Erdmann-Matysik GER [7], Men's Quarter-finals
Sunday on The Hague Beach Stadium Center Court
71, 12:00, Loser of match #69, Loser of match #70, Women's Bronze
72, 13:15, Winner of match #69, Winner of match #70, Women's Gold
71, 14:30, Loser of match #69, Loser of match #70, Men's Bronze
72, 15:45, Winner of match #69, Winner of match #70, Men's Gold
Following this week’s event, the FIVB World Tour returns to the United States for the second-straight year as Long Beach in southern California hosts another $1-million event. The international circuit returns to Europe in August for stops in Austria (Klagenfurt, July 29-August 3) and Poland (Stare Jablonki, August 19-24).