FIVB BVB World Tour heads to Puerto Vallarta

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, May 5, 2014 - For the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) the country changes for the first time on its 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour but the heated court battles will continue. This week, the tour travels to Mexico for the double-gender US$150,000 Puerto Vallarta Open. After two season-opening tournaments in China, the FIVB World Tour returns to Mexico for the first time since 2006 for its first event in Puerto Vallarta to be held on Playa Camarones.

The second of 11 FIVB Open events in 2014, the FIVB Puerto Vallarta Open has men’s action running from Tuesday through Saturday and women’s competition running from Wednesday through Sunday. The tournament format has a one-day qualification tournament in to determine the final eight spots in each gender’s 32-team main draw tournaments followed by round-robin pool play and a single-elimination bracket for the final 24 teams. The men’s semifinals and medal matches will be held Saturday while the women’s semis and medal matches will be played on Sunday at the purpose-built stadium at Puerto Vallarta’s Playa Camarones.

The FIVB World Tour has had eight previous tour stops in Mexico. Acapulco hosted double-gender events in 1999, 2005 and 2006 and Rosarito hosted one double-gender tour stop in 2000.

A total of 50 men’s teams from 20 countries selected by their national federations and 39 women’s teams from 18 countries selected by their federations are officially entered in the FIVB Puerto Vallarta Open. The field includes several of the top up and coming teams from around the world.

NUMBERS ONE FIVB WORLD RANKING

Both the No. 1 men’s and No. 1 women’s team in the 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Rankings are entered in the FIVB Puerto Vallarta Open.  For the men, Chile’s No. 1 cousins Esteban Grimalt/Marco Grimalt are in the field as are the No. 1 women’s team in the current FIVB World Rankings in Argentina’s Olympians Ana Gallay/Georgina Klug.

TEAM MEXICO

As the host nation, Mexico receives three teams in each gender pre-seeded into the main draw. For the men, Mexico’s teams are Ricardo Galindo/Aldo Miramontes, Juan Revuelta/Miguel Cardenas and Juan Virgen/Lombardo Ontiveros. The women’s teams pre-seeded from Mexico are Stephanie Burnside/Diana Lizarraga, Paulette Cruz/Vanessa Virgen and Martha Revuelta/Bibiana Candelas. Mexico’s three teams in the men’s qualification tournament are Emilio Betancourt/Gonzalo Cancino, Julio Manrique/Mario Barragan and Jesus Vallejo/Gerardo Arriola.  Mexico’s one team in the women’s qualification tournament is Mayra Santacruz/Haydee Lopez.