Women’s qualifier, men’s country quota matches Tuesday launch Antalya Open

Antalya, Turkey, May 9, 2016 – After events in Qatar, China, Brazil and Russia, the “globetrotting” players on the FIVB World Tour will start playing here Tuesday in the second annual Antalya Open with a 23-team women’s qualification tournament and a 10-team men’s country quota playoff on the BeachPark courts.

The FIVB World Tour stop is the second-time that the world’s best Beach Volleyball is returning to the BeachPark courts in an eight-month period as the inaugural Antalya Open was held here last October 20-25 with teams from the Czech Republic and Italy capturing the women’s and men’s gold medals, respectively.

RIO 2016 OLYMPIC QUALIFYING EVENT

The US$150,000 Antalya Open is the part of the qualifying process for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games to be played on iconic Copacabana August 6-18.  This week’s event will be the 25th of 28 women’s events in the Rio qualifying process and the 27th of 30 men’s stops.

Tuesday’s qualifier will advance eight teams to the women’s Main Draw where 48 pool play matches will be contested Wednesday and Thursday followed by three rounds of elimination bracket competition Friday to set the lineup for Saturday’s semi-finals and medal matches.

The men’s schedule in the FIVB World Tour event will feature a qualifier Wednesday followed by Main Draw pool play matches Thursday and Friday and elimination Saturday.  The semi-finals and medal contests will be played Sunday.  The winning teams in the Antalya Open will share the $11,000 first-place prizes.

TOP INAUGURAL PAIRS RETURN

The top four finishers from the 2015 Antalya Open are in the field this week, including Barbora Hermannova/Marketa Slukova of the …

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