Brazilian pair Rufino and Salgado top seeds at Fuzhou Open Women’s Qualification Tournament
Maria Clara Salgado Rufino and Carolina Solberg Salgado are named top seeds for the Women’s Qualification Tournament of the Fuzhou Open in China, which starts on Wednesday.
A total of 21 teams were seeded following Tuesday’s technical meeting for the Qualification Tournament with Rufino and Salgado topping the draw. The Brazilian pair has won a number of Open medals including gold at the Myslowice Open in 2008.
Five teams will play in the first round.
The seeds are based on the individual players' points tally, with Swiss pair Isabelle Forrer and Anouk Vergé-Dépré seeded second, Miller Elwin and Henriette Iatika from Vanuatu third and Kazakhstan’s Tatyana Mashkova and Irina Tsimbalova fourth.
The top eight teams from the Qualification Tournament will join the 24 Main Draw teams starting on Thursday.
The Fuzhou Open kicks off the FIVB Beach Volleyball season of 2013, held from April 23-28. Chinese pair Chen Xue and Zhang Xi look set to take top position in the Main Draw.
The Women’s Main Draw technical meeting will take place on Wednesday evening (local time).
Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province lies on the southeast coast of mainland China and hosts the Open event for the first time. The city held the AVC Beach Volleyball Continental Cup in 2012 where Taliqua Clancy was part of the winning Australian team.
The Fuzhou Open is the first of eight Open events during a bumper nine-month season, which also includes the FIVB World Tour – 10 Grand Slams and the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Stare Jablonki, Poland.
The Shanghai Grand Slam is the next tournament on the calendar running from April 30 to May 5
