FIVB SWATCH World Tour returning to Germany

For the first time since 2008, the FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour will be returning to Berlin, Germany for the $600,000 smart Grand Slam Berlin. This year’s double-gender return visit to Germany’s capital city will be held July 10-15 at the Berlin forest stage. The men will open play on July 10 with their semifinals and medal matches on July 14 and the women will start on July 11 and finish with their semis and medal matches on July 15. Billed as a grand slam event within a major summer festival by the IMG promoters who are seeking to set a FIVB gold medal match attendance record of 18,000 fans on July 14. The event will be the sixth of a FIVB-record eight grand slam events in 2012, the field is expected to include many of the men and women former champions in the event. With all FIVB SWATCH World Tour events in Germany having been played in Berlin, the men are returning for the 13th time while the women will be in Berlin for the seventh time. The men first started playing in Berlin in 1995 while the first women’s event was in 2000. The 2005 event was the FIVB SWATCH World Championships. This year’s event will not only include a music festival and evening matches, it will also have the Berlin City Girl model search. With 21 total, Brazil has won the most medals overall in Berlin (15 men and six women) followed by the United States with eight (two men, six women) and Germany and Switzerland with four each (all men). For more overall event information, visit www.grandslamberlin.de.