The Hague, The Netherlands, July 18, 2014 - It appears it will be an All-Brazilian women’s weekend at the US$1-million Transavia Grand Slam presented by Bas Van de Goor Foundation as five teams from the South American country will be among the 16 pairs competing in the second-round of elimination matches here Friday afternoon.
With the fourth of six days of FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour competition be held on The Hague Beach Stadium and three outer courts at Scheveningen beach, Brazil has the possibility of landing four teams in Saturday’s quarter-finals as one of the eight second-round matches will pit two teams from the South American nation.
Another featured match Friday afternoon will have eighth-seeded Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler of Germany challenging second-ranked April Ross and Kerri Walsh of the United States in a meeting of gold medalists on the 2014 FIVB World Tour. While the Germans entered the Transavia Grand Slam after winning last week’s FIVB stop in the Swiss village of Gstaad, Ross and Walsh have won three gold medals this season in China, Russia and Norway.
The All-Brazilian match in the second-round of elimination Friday has 28th-seeded Larissa Franca/Talita Rocha challenging 11th-seeded Taiana Lima/Fernanda Alves. To begin the 2014 season, Talita and Lima were teammates as the Brazilians entered the international campaign as the reigning FIVB World Tour champions after winning five events in 2013. Other Brazilian women’s teams in the second-round are sixth-seeded Maria Antonelli/Juliana Felisberta, seventh-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas and the 16th-seeded Salgado sisters (Maria Clara and Carol).
Here is the second-round of elimination schedule for the women’s Transavia Grand Slam:
• Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross, United States (2) vs. Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler, Germany (8)
• Tanja Goricanec/Tanja Huberli, Switzerland (26, Q8) vs. Fan Wang/Yuan Yue, China (9)
• Maria Antonelli/Juliana Felisberta, Brazil (6) vs. Lauren Fendrick/Brooke Sweat, United States (12)
• Liliana Fernandez/Elsa Baquerizo, Spain (4) vs. Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, Brazil (7)
• Kristyna Kolocova/Marketa Slukova, Czech Republic (3) vs. Louise Bawden/Taliqua Clancy, Australia (15)
• Monika Brzostek/Kinga Kolosinska, Poland (24, Q6) vs. Maria Clara Salgado/Carolina Salgado, Brazil (16)
• Larissa Franca/Talita Rocha, Brazil (28) vs. Taiana Lima/Fernanda Alves, Brazil (11, Q1)
• Nadine Zumkehr/Joana Heidrich, Switzerland (17) vs. Laura Ludwig/Julia Sude, Germany (10)
As a “prelude” to the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, the final three days of the Transavia Grand Slam will be staged only at the Scheveningen courts where the medal matches will be played Sunday. 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.
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).