Brazilian Emanuel Rego (left) celebrates a point with Alison Cerutti Thursday during the opening matches at the A1 Beach Volleyball Grand Slam in Klagenfurt, Austria.

Klagenfurt, Austria, July 29, 2010 - The “money” rounds for US$600,000 A1 Beach Volleyball Grand Slam presented by Volksbank started here Thursday with multi-SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medal winners in 2010 leading the field as the international circuit returns to the capital of Carinthia for the 14th season.

A1 Beach Volleyball Grand Slam Women Men 
SWATCH FIVB World Tour
FIVB Beach Volleyball

Americans Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers and Penggen Wu/Linyin Xu of China won two matches each to pace the 32-team field as the fifth of six “major” events on the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar.  The A1 Beach Volleyball Grand Slam continues through the weekend where the winning men’s and women’s teams will share the $43,500 first-place prizes. 

The women’s Main Draw started Wednesday and concludes Saturday as 16 teams remain in the competition led by top-seeded Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca, the four-time SWATCH FIVB World Tour champions.  The men’s medal matches will be played Sunday on the Metnitzstrand center court at Lake Wörthersee.

With five gold medals in eight previous SWATCH starts this season, the top-seeded Dalhausser and Rogers have clinched their Pool J title by defeating pairs from the United States and Austria.  The American Olympic champions conclude group play Friday against 17th-seeded Miguel Maia/Pedro Rosas of Portugal and will have a “bye” when the 24-team single-elimination bracket competition begins later in the day.

The second-seeded Wu and Xu, who defeated Dalhausser and Rogers for the Russian Grand Slam gold medal last month in Moscow before topping the SWATCH FIVB World Tour podium this past Sunday in Marseille, France, scored wins Thursday over teams from Kazakhstan and Latvia.

To clinch Pool K, Wu and Xu must defeat 15th-seeded Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil of The Netherlands Friday.  A Dutch win would give Nummerdor and Schuil the group leadership out-right unless 31st-seeded Alexandr Dyachenko/Alexey Sidorenko of Kazakhstan defeats Martins Plavins and Janis Smedins of Latvia to force a three-way tie where the point ratio among the three tying teams would determine the leader.

Third-seeded Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego of Brazil returned to SWATCH FIVB World Tour play after missing last week’s Marseille stop.  After placing fifth and 17th in the last two Grand Slam stops in Norway and Switzerland, respectively, Alison and Emanuel defeated teams from Brazil and Spain to clinch the Pool L title.  Alison and Emanuel conclude pool play against 19th-seeded Casey Jennings and Brad Keenan of the United States.

With Plavins and Smedins capturing the silver medal in France last week after losing the finale to Wu and Xu, Latvians were also successful Thursday in A1 Beach Volleyball Grand Slam group play where 23rd-seeded Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Ruslans Sorokins defeated seventh-seeded Marcio Araujo and Ricardo Santos of Brazil 19-21, 21-17 and 15-10 in 59 minutes to lead Pool P with a 2-0 mark.

Other pools with sole leaders are Pool M (13th-seeded (Igor Kolodinsky/Yaroslav Koshkarev of Russia), Pool N (21st-seeded Petr Benes/Premysl Kubala of the Czech Republic) and Pool Q (25th-seeded Jefferson Bellaguarda/Martin Laciga of Switzerland).

The only group where two teams are tied for the leadership and will break the deadlock Friday is Pool O as sixth-seeded Grzegorz Fijalek/Mariusz Prudel of Poland is challenged by 11th-seeded Benjamin Insfran/Bruno Oscar Schmidt of Brazil.  The Polish pair collected their country’s first ever SWATCH FIVB World Tour medal last week in Marseille with a third-place finish.