German pair wins Country Quota Playoff at 2012 Sanya Open – Volleyball news
The German duo of Julia Grossner and Victoria Bieneck kicked off the Country Quota Playoffs at the 2012 Sanya Open women’s beach volleyball tournament in China.
They defeated compatriots Christine Aulenbrock/Chantal Laboureur and reserved a berth in the next stage of the tournament. The match continued for about 36 minutes, while Grossner/Bieneck claimed victory by sending 21-17 and 21-14 on board. The losing team
disqualified from the tournament.
The duo of Grossner and Bieneck started out in a great style and proved its supremacy on the net. Aulenbrock/ Laboureur trailed behind and dropped first set with a margin of four points. With one set in hand, Grossner/Bieneck dominated the next frame and
comfortably pulled off success in the match.
The winning German pair is now scheduled to compete at the Qualification Tournament. Speaking of their next match in the qualifying stage of the tournament, Grossner said, “Tomorrow will be our first qualification tournament ever! We just want to have fun
and gain some experience. We will try our best and winning one game will be very well for us.”
The Sanya Open started off on Tuesday, April 24 and it is scheduled to run through Sunday, April 29. Beach volleyball duos from all across the globe have installed their bases at the southern Chinese resort Sanya. The opening stage of the tournament started
with Country Quota players. Four duos of Germany and host country Brazil entered the CQs.
In the next run, a total of 34 duos will contest their skills at the Qualification Tournament on Wednesday. The important Main Draw of the competition will take centre stage on Thursday and 34 tandems will be on board. The Main Draw will cover its length
in three flights and only the best teams will survive the Final Round of the tournament. The ‘final four’ matches of the Sanya Open will take place on Sunday and the solo event of women will be rounded off.
The Sanya Open women’s beach volleyball tournament in China is the first of three single-gender women's events for the 2012 season. The 2012 SWATCH FIVB World Tour also includes three single-gender events for men, while nine double-gender events are supposed
to happen in this edition of the World Tour.
This is the fifth consecutive year that Sanya is playing host to the FIVB SWATCH World Tour event. This year’s edition has extra importance as it will award the Olympic ranking points to the successful teams.
Beijing Olympic bronze medallists Xue Chen/Zhang Xi of China secured the gold medal at Basilia Open and now aim to secure the another title at home. However, the defending Sanya Open champions Juliana Felisberta Silva/Larissa França from Brazil are also
among top title contenders.
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