When a men’s player serves the first Mikasa on the Plages du Prado Gaston Defferre July 20, the Mediterranean port city of Marseille will “officially” become the No. 1 site on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour in terms of hosting the most international Beach Volleyball tournaments. Currently tied with Rio de Janeiro with a history of 15 men’s events, the 2010 Marseille stop for men will assume the top position on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour list of sites hosting the most tournaments since the start of international competition in 1987. Except for 2005, Marseille has been a regular site on the SWATCH calendar. The 2010 Marseille event will also be the 13th women’s tournament for France’s “Second City” where the Plages du Prado Gaston Defferre site also hosted the 1999 SWATCH FIVB World Championships. The Japanese city of Osaka has staged the most women’s events with 14 as the first Marseille stop for the gender being in 1997. A pair of American tandems captured the 2009 Marseille gold medals as the event featured single-elimination play where the Main Draws for men and women were expanded to 48 teams per gender after staging country quota playoffs and qualifying rounds. Jenny Kessy and April Ross snared the women’s crown followed by an American gold medal win for Beijing 2008 Olympic champions Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers. Kessy and Ross, who had captured the gold medal at the 2009 SWATCH FIVB World Championships three weeks earlier in Stavanger, Norway, became the sixth different American women’s team to win a Marseille gold medal by scoring a 21-16 and 21-17 win in 42 minutes over Vassiliki Arvaniti and Maria Tsiartsiani of Greece. After placing third at the Stavanger worlds, Dalhausser and Rogers won their first of two 2009 SWATCH Grand Slam titles by defeating Spain’s Adrian Gavira Collado and Pablo Herrera Spain 21-8 and 21-14 in the 35-minute Marseille finale. The Americans advanced to the finals by ending a SWATCH record 25-match winning streak by 2009 world champions Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann by defeating the Germans 21-18 and 21-15 in the semi-finals. France’s top finish by a men’s team was in 1994 when Jean-Philippe Jodard and Christian Penigaud dropped the gold medal match to Jan Kvalheim and Bjorn Maaseide of Norway in the first all-European finale on the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour. The teams of Ethel-Julie Arjona/Virginie Kadjo (2003 and 2004) and Deborah Giaoui/Eva Hamzaoui (2008) have posted France's best women's finishes in Marseille.  Pictured to the left below are 2009 Marseille winners from the United States - Jen Kessy (left), Todd Rogers (second from the left), Phil Dalhausser (second from the right) and April Ross.