Tokyo, Japan, July 24, 2019 – With Wednesday marking the 365-day countdown mark until the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games opening ceremonies, eight men’s and eight women’s beach volleyball teams will qualify for the main Draw rounds at this week’s FIVB World Tour event at Shiokaze Park.
With the Japanese capital hosting an international beach volleyball event for the second-straight season, the main draw format for the $300,000 Tokyo Open will feature the same design as the 2020 Summer Games with 24 teams per gender competing for the gold medals to be presented Sunday.
Headlining the men’s and women’s field are the No. 1 ranked teams on the FIVB World Tour ranking list – Anders Mol/Christian Sorum of Norway and Alix Klineman/April Ross of the United States.
Recently-crowned women’s world champions Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan of Canada are also in the women’s main draw. Currently ranked No. 3 in the world, the Canadians defeated Klineman and Ross on July 6 in Hamburg, Germany, for the World Championship trophy and an automatic berth in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Mol and Sorum placed third at the World Championships where the Norwegians defeated Tri Bourne/Trevor Crabb in the bronze medal match.
The 2019 Tokyo Open also serves as a qualifying event for the 2020 Olympic Games where the winning teams will net 800 points with the second-placed pairs collecting 720 with 640 for third, 560 for fourth, 480 for fifth, 400 for ninth, 320 for 17th, 300 for 19th, 240 for 25th and 160 for 33rd. In addition, the winning teams will net $20,000 for placing first.
Following play on Wednesday afternoon, a drawing of lots will be held in the early evening to set the pool play field for Thursday’s schedule featuring six groups of four teams each per gender. Each tandem will play three pool matches with the top two pairs for each pool advancing to the 16-team single-elimination bracket.
The last four berths each gender’s elimination round will be rewarded to the best two third-place finishers in each group (as per match points, then set points, then rally points ratio). The remaining third ranked teams play in the lucky loser round with the two winners qualifying to the Round of 16.
The men’s elimination rounds will start Friday with one round followed by the quarter and semifinals on Saturday. The women will play three elimination rounds Saturday starting with the Round of 16 matches followed by the quarter and semifinal contests. The medal matches will be played on Sunday.
Here are the qualifying seedings for the 2019 Tokyo Open.
Men
1, Gustavo “Guto” Carvalhaes/Saymon Barbosa, Brazil
2, Pedro Solberg/Vitor Felipe, Brazil
3, Reid Priddy/Theo Brunner, United States
4, Cole Durant/Damien Schumann, Australia
5, Peng Gao/Yang Li, China
6, Nils Ehlers/Lars Fluggen, Germany
7, Philipp Bergmann/Yannick Harms, Germany
8, Likejiang Ha/Jiaxin Wu, China
9, Maximilian Guehrer/Zachery Schubert, Australia
10, Murat Giginoglu/Volkan Gogtepe, Turkey
11, Surin Jongklang/Adisorn Khaolumtarn, Thailand
12, Zhuoxin Li/Chaowei Zhou, China
13, Quincy Aye/Arnaud Gauthier-Rat, France
14, Jan Pokersnik/Nejc Zemljak, Slovenia
15, Tobias Winter/Julian Horl, Austria
16, Lukas Pfretzschner/Robin Sowa, Germany
17, Nuttanon Inkiew/Sedtawat Padsawud, Thailand
18, Takashi Tsuchiya/Hitoshi Murakami, Japan
19, Yu Koshikawa/Jumpei Ikeda, Japan
20, Kensuke Shoji/Masato Kurasaka, Japan
21, Keisuke Shimizu/Yuta Nagai, Japan
22, Nobuaki Taira/Ryota Sato, Japan
23, Mohammad Ashfiya/Candra Rachmawan, Indonesia
24, Daniel Thomsen/Morten Overgaard, Denmark
25, Gilang Ramadhan/Danangsyah Pribadi, Indonesia
Women
1, Carolina Salgado/Maria Antonelli, Brazil
2, Kelly Claes/Sarah Sponcil, United States
3, Talita Antunes/Taiana Lima, Brazil
4, Chen Xue/Xinxin Wang, China
5, Isabel Schneider/Victoria Bieneck, Germany
6, Leonie Kortzinger/Sarah Schneider, Germany
7, Akiko Hasegawa/Azusa Futami, Japan
8, Chiyo Suzuki/Yurika Sakaguchi, Japan
9, Phoebe Bell/Jessyka Ngauamo, Australia
10, Aline Chamereau/Alexandra Jupiter, France
11, Varapatsorn Radarong/Khanittha Hongpak, Thailand
12, Miller Pata/Sherysyn Toko, Vanuatu
13, Nai-Han Kou/Pi Hsin Liu, Chinese Taipei
14, Amaranta Navarro/Angela Lobato, Spain
15, Rumpaipruet Numwong/Tanarattha Udomchavee, Thailand
16, Satono Ishitsubo/Asami Shiba, Japan
17, Meimei Lin/Jinjin Zeng, China
18, Yukako Suzuki/Yui Nagata, Japan
19, Kaho Sakaguchi/Reika Murakami, Japan
Here are the teams already placed into each gender’s Main Draw.
Men (world ranking)
• Anders Mol/Christian Sorum, Norway (1)
• Michal Bryl/Grzegorz Fijalek, Poland (3)
• Cherif Samba/Ahmed Tijan, Qatar (4)
• Evandro Goncalves/Bruno Oscar Schmidt, Brazil (6)
• Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen, Netherlands (6)
• Alison Cerutti/Alvaro Filho, Brazil (10)
• Tri Bourne/Trevor Crabb, United States (13)
• Andre Loyola/George Wanderley, Brazil (15)
• Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena, United States (17)
• Taylor Crabb/Jake Gibb, United States (19)
• Sam Pedlow/Sam Schachter, Canada (20)
• Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak, Poland (21)
• Dries Koekelkoren/Tom van Walle, Belgium (33)
• Yoshiumi Hasegawa/Takumi Takahashi, Japan (85)
• Koichi Nishimura/Daisuke Shibata, Japan (156)
• Yusuke “Gottsu” Ishijima/Katsuhiro Shiratori, Japan (445)
Women (world ranking)
• Alix Klineman/April Ross, United States (1)
• Rebecca Cavalcanti/Ana Patricia Silva, Brazil (2)
• Melissa Humana-Paredes/Sarah Pavan, Canada (3)
• Agatha Bednarczuk/Eduarda “Duda” Lisboa, Brazil (5)
• Fernanda Alves/Barbara Seixas, Brazil (8)
• Heather Bansley/Brandie Wilkerson, Canada (9)
• Sanne Keizer/Madelein Meppelink, Netherlands (11)
• Brooke Sweat/Kerri Walsh Jennings, United States (13)
• Kelley Larsen/Emily Stockman, United States (14)
• Barbora Hermannova/Marketa Slukova, Czech Republic (17)
• Fan Wang/Xinyi Xia, China (23)
• Karla Borger/Julia Sude, Germany (25)
• Miki Ishii/Megumi Murakami, Japan (29)
• Katarzyna Kociolek/Kinga Wojtasik, Poland (32)
• Ayumi Kusano/Takemi Nishibori, Japan (44)
• Suzuka Hashimoto/Sayaka Mizoe, Japan (52)
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