GSTAAD, SWITZERLAND, July 24, 2008 - Eight women's teams, including the top six-seeded tandems, earned a bye in the first round of the single elimination bracket in the US$600,000 1to1 energy Grand Slam after winning their pools in round robin play. The Swiss team of Simone Kuhn and Lea Schwer pulled off an upset on Thursday morning to win their upset-laden pool and move ahead to the second round of play. Seeded 10th, Kuhn and Schwer, who were upset victims of The Netherlands' Mared de Vries and Sanne Keizer on Wednesday, knocked off seventh-seeded Rieke Brink-Abeler and Hella Jurich before getting help from the French. Morgane Faure and Virginie Sarpaux of France upended the previously undefeated team of de Vries and Keizer to create a three-way tie with the Dutch, the French and the Swiss. All had 2-1 match records, but because Kuhn and Schwer had won both of the matches in sweeps, their set record was better and therefore they won the pool
Receiving a bye into the second round of the elimination bracket guaranteed the Swiss a finish of no worse than ninth, which equals their best placing in a Grand Slam event since 2006. Kuhn and Schwer's move into the top position of the pool marked the only pool that changed hands from the end of Wednesday's play. Sweden's Angelica Ljungquist and Karin Lundquist, seeded 24th after having emerged from Tuesday's qualifier, lost their only match on Thursday, to the 25th-seeded team from Finland. A win would have kept them undefeated in the 1to1 energy Grand Slam, but they still were able to finish on top in the pool and earn a bye. Ljungquist has assured herself of at least a tie for her best career finish. Five of the top six seeds went through pool play without dropping a single set. China's teams of Jie Wang and Jia Tian, seeded first, and Chen Xue and Xi Zhang, seeded fourth, both had perfect records in the round robin competition. The Chinese are eyeing a Gold Medal in Gstaad, something that has eluded them in the eight-year history of events in the Swiss Alps village. Xue and Zhang have won two titles this season on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour, and each of the past three years here a Chinese team has medaled. Brazil, which has three teams seeded in the top five, had all three win their pools, including two which did not lose a set. Second-seeded Shelda Bede, who won the inaugural event here in 2000, and Ana Paula Connelly, are one of three different Brazilian teams to win this season when they collected the title in Stare Jablonki, Poland. The other undefeated Brazilian team is comprised of sisters Carolina and Maria Carol Salgado. Australia's Tamsin Barnett and Natalie Cook, who will be heading to her fourth beach Olympics next month, won all of their sets by an average margin of nearly six points. Australia is seeking its first Gold Medal since Barnett and Cook won in Seoul on June 1, 2007. The Aussies are seeded sixth in Gstaad. Third-seeded Maria Antonelli and Vanilda Leao, Silver Medalists in Marseille last week, won their pool after having dropped just one set. This week, with bracket play being single elimination, the Brazilians cannot afford to follow the route they took in reaching the title match in Marseille. In the Mediterranean port city they lost their first round match then came all the way back through the contender's bracket to contest for the Gold Medal. The eight teams which finished last in pool play were eliminated, and among those teams were a pair of tandems seeded in the top 10. Germany's Brink-Abeler and Jurich, and ninth-seeded Muriel Graessli and Nadine Zumkehr of Switzerland both finished in 25th place. The remaining 16 teams in the competition all began bracket play, with Germany and The Netherlands each advancing two teams to Friday's play against the pool winners. The two Dutch teams each pulled off an upset win, defeating a team seeded higher than them. In the eight matches of the elimination bracket on Thursday, four were won by lower-seeded teams.
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