Phuket, Thailand, November 3, 2009 - Teams from Germany and the United States played women’s Country Quota Beach Volleyball matches here Tuesday at the US$190,000 Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT as Karon Beach hosts the last of 18 events on the 2009 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Beach Volleyball calendar.

The second of two-straight weeks of competition in Asia, the fourth annual Phuket Thailand Open continues through the weekend with the semi-finals being played Saturday followed by the medal matches Sunday where the winning team will share the $30,000 first-place prize.  The $7.2-million international tour began in Brasília in mid-April as this week’s event is the 16th women’s tournament of the season as the men completed their 14-stop schedule last week in Sanya, China.

The Phuket Thailand Open Qualification Tournament will highlight Wednesday’s schedule to determine the final eight spots for Thursday’s opening Main Draw matches where the competition will feature a 32-team double-elimination schedule.  Friday’s schedule will end with the winner’s bracket quarter-finals while the elimination quarter-finals will be played Saturday before the semi-final meetings.

Capturing Country Quota playoff matches Tuesday were Frederike Fischer/Julia Grossner of Germany and Brittany Hochevar/Jenny Kropp of the United States.  For Fischer and Grossner, Tuesday’s 19-21, 21-15 and 15-9 win in 47 minutes avenged a Country Quota setback to Rieke Brink-Abeler and Claudia Lehmann last week in Sanya.  Brink-Abeler and Lehmann posted a 21-19, 17-21 and 15-10 victory last Tuesday in 53 minutes over their German rivals

Competing for the first-time on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour, Hochevar and Kropp rebounded from a 21-8 first set defeat to Brooke Hanson and Lisa Rutledge to win the next two sets 21-18 and 15-9 in the 50-minute match with their compatriots to advance to Wednesday’s qualifier.

“I think playing for the first-time internationally combined with a different ball and the humidity really hurt our concentration,” said the 28-year old Hochevar, who played collegiately at Long Beach State with Misty May-Treanor and has a brother (Luke) that is a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball.  “Once we settled down and eliminated our errors, we played a lot better in the next two sets.  What a relief, but tomorrow we be just as difficult as we will be playing a lot of new teams.”

Thailand will have two teams in Wednesday’s qualifier as the host country has already placed the Beach Volleyball pairs of Jarunee Sannok/Usa Tenpaksee, Kamoltip Kulna/Yupa Phokongploy and Julaluk Radarong/Manerat Udomchavee in the Main Draw.  Thai qualifying teams are Orradee Phupanee/Aunchalee Yunsuwan and Kijja Khantharak/Ariya Laoseangsa.

Phuket hosted the next to last women’s event on the 2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour where Sannok/Tenpaksee and Kulna/Phokongploy placed 13th as both pairs defeated the same teams from Great Britain and Japan in the competition.  Radarong and Udomchavee missed qualifying at the 2008 Phuket Thailand Open after being eliminated by a team from the United States.

Prior to hosting its first SWATCH FIVB World Tour event in 2006, Thailand staged women’s FIVB Challenger/Satellite events in Pattaya (2001), Bangkok (2005) and Phuket (2005).  The 2005 Phuket stop served as a prelude to the inaugural SWATCH stop in Thailand where the competition was part of the Andaman Festival to mark the first anniversary of the Tsunami of 2004.

Americans Jen Kessy and April Ross, who will be the top-seeded this week, won the 2008 Phuket Thailand Open finale by defeating Nicole Branagh and Tyra Turner 18-21, 21-14 and 15-12 in the 63-minute All-American finale.  Turner returns this season with Angie Akers as does 2008 bronze medal winners Geeske Banck and Anja Gunther of Germany, who defeated Tamsin Barnett and Becchara Palmer of Australia in the third-place game.