Seeded number one in the 39-team qualification tournament, Becchara Palmer and Louise Bawden of Australia eliminated Maria Todorova/Evelina Tcholakova of Bulgaria and compatriots Natalie “Nat” Cook/Tara West to make the Main Draw together with teammates Alice Rohkamper/Tamsin Hinchley.
“Today we played a very solid game and I know the other Australian team are always going to bring a fight so we have to prepare very well for it or we won’t win this game,” Bawden said following a straight sets win over Cook/West.
“We expect to come out with the same attitude and focus and continue to play an aggressive game and hope the good results to follow,” Palmer added.
Anastasia Vasina/Evgenia Ukolova and Ekaterina Khomyakova/Anna Vozakova of Russia also collected two qualifying victories in a row while the other teams advancing are Laura Giombini/Valeria Rosso (Italy), Roos Van der Hoeven/Jantine Van der Vlist (Netherlands), Angela Vieira/Liliane Maestrini (Brazil) and Kathrine Maaseide/Ingrid Torlen (Norway).
Featuring two-time Olympic champions Misty May-Treanor/Kerri Walsh from the United States, Brazilian star combination Juliana Felisberta/Larissa Franca as well as Sanya Open title winning teams from 2008 to 2010, namely Jennifer Kessy-Boss/April Ross of the United States, Simone Kuhn and Nadine Zumkehr from Switzerland and Xue Chen/Zhang Xi, the Main Draw will kick off on Thursday with the finale scheduled for Sunday.
The gold medal teams for the single gender Sanya Open will split US$30,000, the silver US$21,000 and the bronze US$15,000.
The tournament is the first of three single-gender events for women in the 2011 season, which also includes two single-gender events for men along with 12 double-gender events and a special 24-team Olympic test even in London August 9 to 14.
