Australians Stefanie Fejes/Jana Milutinovic and Thailand’s Pithak Tipjan/Poravid Taovato are regarded as the strongest women’s and men’s contenders among 45 teams strutting their stuff in the Smart AVC Beach Tour Nuvali Open, which is ready to kick off at the world-class Nuvali Sand Courts by Ayala Land in the City of Santa Rosa, the Philippines on Thursday, April 4.
The General Technical Meeting took place at Velvet Room in Seda Nuvali Hotel on Wednesday, with Mr Donaldo Caringal, Secretary General of Philippine National Volleyball Federation, presiding.
Donaldo Caringal
Antonio Carlos Jr
Also in attendance were Technical Delegate Mr Thomas Chang from Hong Kong, China, Referee Delegate Mr Srinivasan Jayaraman from India and Event Operations Manager Mr Antonio Carlos Jr.
Thomas Chang, left, and Srinivasan Jayaraman
All participating teams from 13 countries consisting of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Thailand, Philippines, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong China, Indonesia, Macao China, Singapore, China, Iran and Malaysia attended the meeting which was held to finally confirm the competition, refereeing, medical and other related matters set for the action-packed four-day event.
Split into eight pools from A to H in the men’s and women’s Main Draw, teams will first compete in the round-robin pool preliminaries, followed by a single elimination competitions (round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals).
Fejes and Milutinovic are top seeds and are favorites in the women’s event. After winning the World Beach Pro Tour Futures tournament in Coolangatta this time last year, the Australian duo have won six tournaments in a row this summer including the back-to-back BPT Futures Coolangatta, Beach Pro Tour Futures Mollymook and the Mahindra Australian Beach Volleyball Championships, all in March, and Pacific Games for Australia late last year.
Fejes/Milutinovic will play in Pool A against 16th-seeds THA3’s Rumpaipruet Numwong/Veeradakittikarn Wirakornkhayatimat. Pool B comprises second-seeds AUS2’s Jasmine Fleming/Georgia Johnson, bronze medallists at BTP Futures Mollymook in March, and NZL2’s Katie Sadlier/Meile-Rose Green.
Third-seeds Asami Shiba/Maruyama of JPN1 are in Pool C with INA and KAZ2, while fourth-seeds Suzuka Hashimoto/Reika Murakami of JPN2, who took silver at BPT Futures Mollymook and bronze at BPT Futures Coolangatta, will compete in Pool D against THA2 and SGP1.
Fifth seeds Woranatchayakorn…
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