Brazil’s Thiago/Harley duo advance to FIVB Fortaleza Open main draw

Lausanne, Switzerland, April 26, 2016 — Brazil’s veteran  beach volleyball duo of Thiago Santos/Harley Marques and advanced from their qualification match victory Tuesday over Switzerland’s Adrian Heidrich/Gabriel Kissling to give the host country eight teams in the men’s main draw at this week’s double-gender $150,000 FIVB Fortaleza Open, marking the first time since 2007 that the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour has played in Fortaleza, located in the Northeast section of the massive South American country.The double-gender $150,000 FIVB Fortaleza Open started Tuesday and concludes on Sunday. It is the 11th men’s event of the season and eighth women’s event on the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour that started with three events at the end of 2015. The FIVB Fortaleza Open is being played at the purpose built stadium at Praia do Futuro in Fortaleza, site of last week’s season finale of the Brazilian National Tour.Brazil’s Thiago, 33, of Itaborai and Harley, 41, of Brasilia, held off the hungry young Swiss team, defeating Heidrich, 21 and Kissling, 23, in straight sets, 25-23, 21-14 in 44 minutes. It was the only qualification match needed to complete the men’s 32-team main draw.FORTALEZA SCHEDULEThe FIVB Fortaleza Open is a double-gender event with 32 main draw teams per gender. The format is the same for each gender with the schedule having the men start a day earlier and both genders finish on Sunday. For the men, a qualification tournament on Tuesday was held to determine the final spot in the 32-team main draw for each gender followed by two days of round robin pool play. The top three teams in the eight pools (24 total teams) will advance from pool play to the single-elimination knockout rounds. On Saturday, the quarterfinals and semifinals for both genders will be played. The medal matches for both genders will all be played on Sunday with the awarding ceremony following the last gold medal match concluding the event.Men will also play their first elimination round on Thursday. On Friday the men will play their final single elimination round. For the women, their main draw will start with pool play on Thursday and Friday along with the first two single-elimination rounds on Friday. With 28 total teams entered here, the women will have no qualification tournament Wednesday as all 28 will compete in the women’s main draw starting Thursday.Starting the fifth of eight straight weeks of events after three weeks in Asia, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) has returned to Brazil to continue the qualifying process for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games through the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. The string of eight consecutive events continues in Brazil on Monday with the double-gender $150,000 FIVB Fortaleza Open. It is the fifth tournament in the stretch of eight straight events. Next week the FIVB World Tour visits Europe for the first time this season, playing the double-gender $150,000 FIVB Sochi Open in Russia.Playing in …

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