Lausanne, Switzerland, June 10, 2011 – Eighth seeds Chen Xue and Xi Zhang  of China will have the honour of opening the FIVB Swatch World Championships powered by smart as they take on Mexico’s Bibiana Candelas and Mayra Garcia of Mexico, who are seeded 32, in Pool H on court three at 11:30 on Monday at Foro d’Italico in Rome following the confirmation of the playing schedule on Friday.

Switzerland’s Simone Kuhn and Nadine Zumkehr will play Shauna Mullin and Zara Dampney from Great Britain at the same time in another Pool H match on court four.

The first centre court match will see Italy’s Gioria Daniela and Giulia Momoli take on Angela Akers and Nicole Branagh of the US at 12:30 in Pool L, which will be broadcasted live on La 7. The 14th seeds will have plenty of home support behind them as they take on Akers and Branagh, who are seeded 11th, after Daniela and Momoli reached the second round of the Beijing Grand Slam while Akers and Branagh were knocked out in the first round. Taking place at the same time will be a match on court two featuring Belgium’s Katrien Gielen and Liesbeth Mouha against Minusa Inguna and Jursone Inese of Latvia.

Match Schedule  Men / Women

Candelas and Garcia, who finished 17th at the FIVB Swatch World Championships 2009 in Norway, haven’t beaten the Chinese pair. In their two previous encounters in Gstaad last year and Paris in 2008, Xue and Xi won in straight sets.

FIVB Swatch World Championships powered by smart will feature three days of pool play action where the 48 teams in each gender are split into 12 pools of four teams with the winners, second-placed teams and the eight best-ranked third-placed teams advancing to the Round of 32.

Top seeds in the women’s draw, Juliana and Larissa from Brazil will play their first match at 18:00 on Monday on centre court in another live match on La 7 against home side Giada Benazzi and Viktoria Orsi Toth. Defending champions and 3rd seeds Jennifer Kessy and April Ross will feature for the first time on Tuesday at 09:30 on court three against Austria’s Barbara Hansel and Sara Montagnolli.

The first men’s match will take place at 13:00 on Monday with two Pool G matches featuring 7th seeds Matt Fuerbringer and Nick Lucena from the United States against Brazilian 18th seeds Harley and Thiago from Brazil on court three while Renato Gomes and Jorge Terceiro of Georgia take on Sam Boehm and Isaac Kapa of Australia on court four.

Top seeds, Olympic and 2007 world champions Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser will play, assuming Dalhausser has recovered sufficiently from the ankle injury he suffered in Beijing, their first match at 21:00 on Monday against compatriots Kevin Wong and Casey Jennings on centre court.

Defending champions and fourth seeds Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann, who warmed up superbly with an outstanding performance at the Beijing Grand Slam, feature for the first time at 21:00 on Tuesday against Russia’s Alexander Likholetov / Alexey Pastukhov

Host broadcasters La7 will broadcast live everyday the matches at 12:30 and 18:00 before covering the semifinals and finals live on Saturday and Sunday providing the superb television coverage, which is expected to reach 800m households around the world with an audience of 1.6 billion also expected to see the FIVB Swatch World Championships powered by smart via news coverage.

FIVB.org will also provide live scoring while FIVB Web TV will also provide live streaming of the FIVB Swatch World Championships powered by smart everyday.