An FIVB Rookie of the Year in 2008, Mexico’s Bibiana Candelas (right) is one of the tallest players on the FIVB Swatch World Tour at 1.96m and now has the honour of playing in the first matches of the World Championships
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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.
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