The Thailand resort city of Phuket will host its fifth SWATCH FIVB World Tour event November 2-7 as the 2010 international Beach Volleyball calendar concludes on Karon Beach with a US$190,000 women’s-only event.  With the men’s season finale at the end of August at a double gender event in The Netherlands, the women’s schedule concludes with back-to-back events in Asia as China hosts the world’s best players a week before Phuket with an October 26-31 stop in Sanya.  Olympic medal winners and world champions have won the previous four Phuket events as teams from China and the United States have filled the podium along with pairs from Germany and Russia. Phuket’s initial international Beach Volleyball event was in 2005 for a FIVB Challenger stop won by Eiko Koizumi and Shinako Tanaka of Japan as the tournament was established to help promote tourism in the Tsunami-hit areas.  China’s Chen Xue and Xi Zhang captured the first SWATCH stop in Phuket by defeating compatriots Jia Tian and Jie Wang 21-18 and 21-15 in the 48-minute finale in 2006. Two years later, the two Chinese teams captured medals at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games where Tian and Wang defeated Xue and Zhang in the semi-finals before losing to Americans Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh in the gold medal match.  May-Treanor and Walsh, who placed third in the 2006 Phuket event after losing to Xue and Zhang in the semi-finals, earned the top podium position in 2007 on Karon Beach by defeating American rivals Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs 21-18, 16-21 and 15-13 in the 58 minutes finale as Tian and Wang placed third.  Jen Kessy and April Ross, the 2009 world champions, captured the next two Phuket gold medals by defeating American rivals in the finals. After posting an 18-21, 21-14 and 15-12 gold medal win in 63 minutes over Branagh and Turner Turner in 2008, Kessy and Ross topped the 2009 Phuket podium with a 21-12 and 21-17 win in 37 minutes over Angie Akers and Turner.  In denying a United States Phuket podium sweep in 2009, Maria Bratkova and Evgenia Ukolova became the first Russian women’s team to win a SWATCH FIVB World Tour medal by defeating Americans Lauren Fendrick and Ashley Ivy 15-21, 22-20 and 15-9 in the 53-minutes bronze medal match.  Pictured to the left below are 2009 Phuket podium placers (left to right) Tyra Turner, Angie Akers, Jennifer Kessy, April Ross, Evgenia Ukolova and Maria Bratkova.