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Beach volleyball 30/10/2013

USA’s Kessy joins up with Sweat to top Pool G at Phuket Open

Phuket, Thailand, October 30, 2013 – USA’s Jennifer
Kessy and Brooke Sweat top Pool G after securing two wins on the first day of
pool play at the 2013 FIVB Beach
Volleyball Phuket Open on Wednesday. The
penultimate Open of the year is back in Thailand for its eighth consecutive
year, taking place from October 28 to November 3.

Kessy/Sweat were first on
court at 9:00 in Phuket with temperatures already up to 30°C. In their first outing
together, the US team quickly found their feet, beating Melinda Adelin and
Laura Longuet from France 2-0
(21-8, 21-13).

“This morning was a good first match for us. This is
our first tournament playing together and we haven’t had a lot of practice
together, so we were just figuring things out in that match and came away with
the win,” said Sweat.

Phuket
Veteran

Kessy/Sweat then played
strong qualifiers Teresa Mersmann and Isabel Schneider (GER) on centre court in the heat of the day.
Germany surprised the US pair, pushing the first set all the way, but Kessy/Sweat
finally closed it 26-24. The German pair began to struggle in their third match
of the tournament and reluctantly forfeited the match at 10-4.

“It’s always tough to play a team you’ve never seen
before, you’ve never played before and they did really well. They had really
good ball control, good defence, good serving so I think we got a little bit
behind in the first set and then battled back to win 26-24. Luckily we won that
game and then I think the heat just got to the German’s and they forfeited so
we’re really happy to come out with a win,” said Kessy.

Kessy pairs up with Sweat for the first time in
Phuket, despite appearing in the tournament over multiple years winning gold
twice and silver once here before with April Ross.

“As long as the tournament has been going I have been
coming here. I hadn’t played a lot this year and I saw that Brooke needed a
partner for this tournament and I thought absolutely, so I was so excited to
come back,” said Kessy.

April Ross enters Phuket with Jennifer Fopma as Kessy
plans to spend more time with her family over the coming years, but Brooke still
has the pleasure of playing with Kessy in Thailand.

“It’s an honour to play with Jennifer, she’s been
playing since I started watching her and following her so to play with an
Olympic silver medallist, I never thought I would. It’s amazing,” said Brooke.

Menegatti/Orsi
Toth meet Arvaniti/Karagkouni

Italy’s Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi Toth had a
tough first match in Phuket facing Vasiliki Arvaniti and Panagiota Karagkouni
from Greece. The first set went according to plan for the Italian’s winning
21-13, but the Greek pair came out strong in the second.
Arvaniti/Karagkouni first took the edge at 8-7
and from there it was a battle for the lead. A number of long points midway
through began to produce errors, but Greece confidently smashed home the last
two points taking the set 23-21.

The third set proved equally close, but a nice
placement by Orsi Toth helped the Italian’s to end the match 2-1 (21-13, 21-23, 15-12).

“We feel great, it was the first match and it was so
difficult I think, with this weather. We complicated our life because we would
like to have won, two sets to zero, but maybe the weather, it’s too hot. But it’s
OK like this, important is to win,” said Menegatti.

We have played together for about three months and we
fit each other well. We are the same age. I think our strength is that we are very
ambitious and we are together on the court and outside, so we are fine together."

Menegatti/Orsi Toth end the day just behind Evgenia
Ukolova and Maria Prokopeva in Pool G and both pairs play their last two pool
matches on Thursday in Phuket.

Thailand’s favourites Varapatsorn Radarong and Tanarattha
Udomchavee are still on track, topping Pool A at the end of the first day in the main draw. The Thai girls beat Svitlana Baburina and Diana Mulenko (UKR) 2-0 (21-8, 21-14) and then awarded
their second match due to injury of Polish team Monika Brzostek and Kinga
Kolosinska.

Thailand has hosted
over 10 women’s and one men’s FIVB tournament. Overall, the USA has been the
most successful with 10 medal finishes in the seven FIVB World Tour events held
in Phuket.

The tournament
previously ran from 2006 until 2011, when the event moved to Bangsaen in 2012.
China’s Chen Xue and Zhang Xi won the 2011 edition, while Jennifer Kessy and
April Ross were victorious in 2012.

Phuket
is an island located to the south of Thailand, while the city of Phuket is the
island’s capital and home to 75,000 people. It is located 825 kilometres from
Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.

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