Brazilian Women Upset Grand Slam Moscow 2009 Top Qualifying Seed

For the first-time this season on the 2009 women’s SWATCH FIVB World Tour, the top-seeded team was defeated in the Qualification Tournament as the US$600,000 Grand Slam Moscow 2009 continued here Tuesday with the second of seven days of competition at Poklonnaya Gora (Victory Park).

After winning a Brazilian Country Quota match Monday afternoon, 17th-seeded Vivian Cunha and Angela Vieira won a pair of matches Tuesday over tandems from Austria and Georgia to advance to Wednesday’s opening pool play rounds in the 32-team Main Draw at the Grand Slam Moscow 2009।

Vivian and Vieira, who failed in a qualifying attempt last week in Switzerland after also winning a Brazilian Country Quota match before being eliminated by a team from Australia, posted a 21-14 and 21-11 win in 32 minutes over top-seeded Cristine "Saka" Santanna and Andrezza "Rtvelo" Martins of Georgia.

The Grand Slam Moscow 2009 is Vivian and Vieira’s third appearance in a SWATCH qualifier this season as the pair also advanced to the “money” rounds in the 2009 FIVB season opener in Brazil where the pair placed 17th after being eliminated by compatriots Vanilda Leão and Renata Ribeiro. In Gstaad last week, Vivian and Vieira avenged that defeat with a Country Quota win over Leão and Renata.

With Russia having already placed three teams into the Main Draw due to entry points and a “wild card”, the host country earned a fourth berth when 19th-seeded Svetlana Popova and Natalya Uryadova upset 14th-seeded Imara Esteves Ribalta and Dalixia Fernandez Grasset of Cuba 24-22 and 28-26 in 55 minutes and third-seeded Marie-Andree Lessard and Annie Martin of Canada 21-13 and 21-13 in 34 minutes.

Prior to Tuesday’s results, Popova had never advanced from a SWATCH FIVB World Tour qualifier in five appearances last season with Anastasia Vasina. Uryadova competed in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games with Alexandra Shiryaeva as the pair posted Russia’s only SWATCH semi-final appearance at a 2006 stop in Warsaw. A week earlier at the 2006 European championships, Uryadova and Shiryaeva won the gold medal.

Russian pairs also competing Wednesday in the Main Draw are Vasina/Galina Boyko, Maria Bratkova/Evgenia Ukolova and Ekaterina Khomyakova/Anna Vozakova. Vasina and Boyko placed ninth last week at the Swiss Grand Slam for Russia’s best women’s finish on the SWATCH circuit. Bratkova and Ukolova have netted 13th-place finishes in Shanghai and Seoul in 2009.

Five of the top eight-seeded teams advanced from the qualifier by winning matches Tuesday, including second-seeded Daniela Gioria/Giulia Momoli of Italy, fourth-seeded Erika Nystrom/Emilia Nystrom of Finland, fifth-seeded Sara Montagnolli/Barbara Hansel of Austria, sixth-seeded Mayra Garcia/Bibiana Candelas of Mexico and seventh-seeded Okka Rau/Stephanie Pohl of Germany.

Making the biggest break-through Tuesday was Shinako Tanaka and Hiromi Suzuki as the 24th-seeded Japanese pair scored upset wins over teams Denmark and Australia. The Japanese advancement also marked the best finish by a lower seeded team as Fernandez Grasset and Esteves Ribalta were the 23rd-seeded qualifiers in Gstaad last week.

With the women’s Qualification Tournament for the Grand Slam Moscow 2009 determining the final eight teams for the Main Draw, the pool play matches will set the field for the 24-team elimination bracket where the opening matches will be played Thursday afternoon. The women’s semi-final and medal matches will be played Saturday as the winning team shares the $43,500 first-place prize.

The 2009 SWATCH FIVB World Tour features $7.39-million in prize money and continues through the fall with the men’s final event in China and the women’s last stop in Thailand. Following the series of Grand Slam events, the international circuit remains in Europe for stops in Poland, Norway, Finland, The Netherlands, Italy and Spain.