With 24 teams remaining in contention, following some late withdrawals, the Qualification Tournament of the CEV Cyprus Women’s Beach Volleyball Challenger 2009 has been scrapped and all teams have been moved directly to the Main Draw.
The Main Draw features two teams from outside of Europe, with Brazil’s Barbara Seixas Figueredo/Claudinere Bento Sabin and Canada’s Marie-Christine Mondor/Melanie Savoie having earned Wild Cards. Mondor, who has competed in all the Cyprus Challengers since the first edition in 2006, is the defending champion, having won last year’s edition with team mate Anouk Boileau.
Top seeds of the tournament, which is being held at the same location for the fourth year in a row, are Spain’s Alejandra Simon/Cristina Hopf, gold medallists at the Mediterranean Games two weeks ago in Pescara and ninth at the Spanish Masters of the European Championship Tour earlier this summer.
“We feel the need to express our sincere thanks to the Mayor of Geroskipou, Tassos Kouzoupos, for his continuing support of the tournament, despite the global financial crisis,” said Costas Constantinides, Vice-President of the Cyprus Volleyball Federation.
Focus at the CEV Cyprus Challenger will also fall upon the local darlings, Cyprus’ Manolina Constantinou/Mariota Angelopoulou, winners of the Games of the Small States of Europe earlier this summer. Cyprus, which has recently embarked on an ambitious Beach Volleyball development programme, will also be entering a second team, comprised of Andri Iordanou/ Thelma Christoforou.
The 12,000 € tournament, staged at Atlantida Beach, in the Paphos suburb of Geroskipou, is set to begin on Friday, with the semi-finals and finals scheduled for Sunday afternoon.
Past winners of the Cyprus Challenger are:
2006: Hana Klapalova/Tereza Petrova (CZE)
2007: Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler (GER)
2008: Anouk Boileau/Marie-Christine Mondor (CAN)
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