Mazury Orlen Grand Slam 2010: Women’s Main Draw qualifiers brought surprising results
The women’s country quota matches at the SWATCH FIVB Mazury Orlen Grand Slam 2010 started on Monday, the 2nd of August which was followed by the qualification tournament on Tuesday.
Teams from Germany and Italy delivered a great performance and posted a pair of upset wins in the qualification tournament and advanced to the main draw stage. This is the first time in history that both these teams are together at this phase of the tournament. The German and Italian pairs progressed from the 30-team Mazury Orlen Grand Slam qualifying matches to the first pool play matches of the tournament.
The 21stseeded Jana Kohler and Julia Sude of Germany contested with the relatively strong team from Norway which included 12th seeded Vilde Solvoll and Ingrid on Tuesday. The German players exhibited some exceptional beach volleyball and took it away from their opponent’s hands in just 39 minutes. In the second spell, they won a match against Russia’s Maria Bratkova and Evgenia Ukolova.
The Russian pair took advantage of their height and extraordinary physical strength to beat the Germans in first set, but they lost their energy in the next two. The German side gained the control of the game in the final two sets to claimed victory in the match. Kohler and Sude won the country quota playoffs and remained consistent to stay on the same course. It was a great achievement for Kohler and Sude as they obtained victory on back-to-back days for the third time in this season. In the previous two grand slams, they advanced from the country quotas to the main draw matches in similar fashion.
On the other hand, Celle and Rosso of Italy had a rough turn in the previous games of this season but the current Mazury Orlen Grand Slam was lucky for them. Cella and Rosso started the 2010 season with shaky performances as they lost three pool play matches at the Italian Grand Slam stop in Rome. As a result, they were placed at the 13th and 7th places in two European Challenger/Satellite tournaments in Romania and Bulgaria respectively. Although they lost five FIVB qualifying matches this season, the team managed to spark again with their win over teams from Germany and China in the Mazury Grand Slam Championship. With this triumph, the Italian Cella and Rosso were able to play the “money” round matches.
Likewise, the 2010 Mazury Grand Slam proved to be constructive for the American pairs who captured the top two spots in the SWATCH FIVB Mazury Orlen Grand Slam qualifying matches. Jen Kessy and April Ross eliminated the pair from Switzerland while Angie Akers and Tyra Turner declared victory over the Chinese team. The American team of Jen Kessy/April Ross and Angie Akers/Tyra Turner currently hold the number 3 and number 11 spot in the overall FIVB women’s ranking.
The third-seeded pair of Vanilda Leao and Angela Vieira from Brazil also stayed in the winners’ circle by posting a thumping victory over Polish and Australian teams. In the first day of the country quota matches, Leao and Vieira ousted Vivian Cunha and Taiana Lima, which promptly boosted their morale. They continued with the same spirit and were able to enter the main draw after achieving victory in the qualification tournament matches.
The 4th seeded Austrian duo of Louise Bawden and Becchara Palmer and 6th seeded Liesbethh Mouha and Liesbet Van Breedam of Belgium, were among the unbeaten pairs. Meanwhile, the 7th seeded pair of Elsa Baquerizo and Liliana Fernandez Steiner of Spain also joined them later.
The fury of SWATCH FIVB’s last seasonal Grand Slam reached its end on Saturday with the “final four” matches. The defending Brazilian pair of Juliana and Larissa repeated the tradition of winning and took away the gold once again.
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