World’s Best Beach Volleyball Teams head to Phuket

World’s Best Beach Volleyball Teams head to Phuket

The 4th Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT, last stop on the Swatch-FIVB Women’s Beach Volleyball World Tour will be held on Karon Beach, Phuket from 3 - 8 November 2009. The tournament which offers prize money of US$190,000 is one of the most popular events on the world tour and has attracted a record number of entries from the leading professional beach volleyball teams around the globe.

To date, over 70 of the world’s leading beach volleyball teams from 30 countries have entered the five day tournament including: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Russia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Thailand, Ukraine and Vanuatu.

The entry list includes the world ranked No 1 team of Larissa and Juliana from Brazil who have amassed an amazing 8 wins on the 2009 Swatch FIVB World Tour as well as 15 of the world’s top 20 teams. With a number of big teams yet to enter, such as Canada, Cuba and the USA, the final total of participants is expected to be in excess of 35 nations.

Thailand as the host country is allocated 2 teams in the 32 strong main draw and a third team has been given a wild card into the tournament, after winning the pre-qualifying tournament held last month at the Sports Authority of Thailand’s beach court at Huamark. An additional 3 Thai teams will participate in the qualifying rounds.

The Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT is sanctioned by the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) and the Volleyball Association of Thailand (TVA), and is played over 5 days of competition, qualification rounds being held on 4 November and the main draw taking place from the 5 - 8 November. Matches will start from 09.00 daily, except on finals day when matches start at 15.00.

Both semi-finals on Saturday 7 November and the final and 3^rd/4^th place play-off on Sunday 8 November will be televised “live” on NBT and the T-Sports channels in Thailand and across Asia, Europe and the USA. In addition to the “live” broadcast, a special highlight show of the tournament will go out to sports fans worldwide.

Admission to the tournament is free, and the programme on-site includes beach volleyball camps, an inter-hotel tournament, a beer garden plus many other activities and games in the expanded sponsor zone adjacent to the centre court.

The tournament is supported by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Sports Authority of Thailand, PTT Public Company., Ltd, Federbrau, Kata Group of Hotels, Phuket Gazette, Sian Tai, Haad Thip, Woraburi Resort, FBT, and TOT Public Company Limited.

International sponsors of the event are the Swatch Group, Mikasa and Descente.

For further information, please contact Pentangle Promotions Co., Ltd; Tel 02-3113414-5, Fax: 02-3113498 or e-mail pr@pentanglepromotions.com