Rome Hosts SWATCH FIVB World Tour Grand Slam Event

After staging a “successful” single gender event in 2009, the Italian Volleyball Federation will increase its involvement on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour by hosting a men’s and women’s Grand Slam event May 17-23 in Rome as a prelude to the 2011 SWATCH FIVB World Championships. The Italian capital hosted its first-ever SWATCH FIVB World Tour event in 2009 when Germany’s Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann won men’s titles on the Parco del Foro Italico center court. It was Brink and Reckermann’s first of four SWATCH gold medals in 2009 as the German pair captured the 2009 SWATCH FIVB World Championships in Norway followed by Grand Slam title in Switzerland and Russia. All four gold medal wins were over Brazilian tandems as Brink and Reckermann finished the 2009 FIVB Beach Volleyball season as the top team on the SWATCH tour after edging Alison Cerutti and Harley Marques of Brazil for the point’s championship. Alison and Harley placed third in the inaugural Rome event after dropping a three-set semi-final to compatriots Pedro Cunha and Pedro Cunha. The Rome Grand Slam will feature US$600,000 in prize money and will be the first of six “major” events on the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar. The women’s event in Rome will be the first in Italy since 2006 when Modena hosted the season-opening event in May 2006 where Brazilians Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa França upset American Olympic and world champions Misty May-Treanor and Kerry Walsh in the finale.  Rome is Italy's largest and most populous city with over 2.7-million residents. Located in the central-western portion of the Italian peninsula on the Tiber river, Rome's history as a city spans over two and a half thousand years, as one of the founding cities of Western Civilization. Even outside of the history of the Roman Empire, Rome has a significant place in the story of Christianity up to the present day as the home of the Roman Catholic Church. As one of the few major European cities that escaped World War II relatively unscathed, central Rome remains essentially Renaissance and Baroque in character. Rome is the third-most-visited tourist destination in the European Union.  Pictured to the left is Larissa  França of Brazil, who has captured two gold medal winners on Italian sand.