World champs vs. World tour leaders

Moscow, Russia, May 26, 2016 – With the Moscow Grand Slam being the second “big” event on the 2015-2016 FIVB World Tour calendar, an opening match here Thursday morning featured reigning Beach Volleyball world champions Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt of Brazil playing world tour leaders Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak of Poland.

Playing on an outside court at the Vodny Stadium Beach Sports Centre, the top-seeded Alison and Bruno won their second match in the US$800,000 event with a 2-0 (21-18, 26-24) victory in 43 minutes over the 17th-seeded Kantor and Losiak to remain unbeaten in Pool A with 16th-seeded Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter of Canada.

With Alison and Bruno playing in only their third FIVB World Tour event this season after ranking as the No. 1 pair on the 2015 international standings, Kantor and Losiak are competing in their 11th tournament with 3,560 points as compared to their Brazilian rivals 1,220 points to currently be listed No. 39.  In 2015, Alison and Bruno totaled 6,070 world tour points for 11 starts with the Poles No. 14 with 3,440 points for 13 events.

“That was a good win for us over a young team that won the Rio Grand Slam in March,” said Bruno, who will team with Alison to represent Brazil in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.  “The Polish kids have played a lot of events this year to get ready for the Olympics.  We are taking a …

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