Beach Volleyball World Tour in Phuket is biggest-ever

The Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT, last stop on the Swatch-FIVB Women’s Beach Volleyball World Tour will be held for the fifth successive year on Karon Beach, Phuket from 2 – 7 November 2010.

The tournament which offers prize money of US$190,000 has attracted the largest ever number of entries from the world’s leading professional beach volleyball teams and with the supporting amateur beach volley programmes it is now the biggest beach volleyball tournament in Asia with over 500 athletes involved.

At last year’s “Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT” more teams competed in the event than in any other tournament on the Beach Volley World Tour. This year, a record number of teams can be expected to enter the event as the Asian Games in Guangzhou will be held from 12 – 27 November 2010, shortly after the completion of the Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT.

The tournament is supported by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Sport Authority of Thailand, PTT Public Company Limited, Phuket Province, Karon Municipality, Federbrau beer, Kata Group, Woraburi Hotel, Had Tip Co. Ltd., FBT, TOT Public Company Limited, Tez Tour, Phuket Gazette and Siang Tai newspapers.

Thailand as the host country is automatically allocated 2 teams into the main draw and a third Thai team, the winners of the recently held Pre-Qualifying tournament in Bangkok have been given a wild card into the  main draw. The 3 teams finishing in 2nd – 4th positions in the Pre-Qualifying will participate in the qualifying rounds of the Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT.

The tournament is sanctioned by the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) and the Volleyball Association of Thailand (TVA), and is played over 6 days of competition,  qualification rounds being held on 2-3 November and the main draw taking place from 4 – 7 November. Matches will start from 09.00 daily, except on finals days when matches start at 15.00. Entry is free for spectators.

The semi final matches would be held on November 6th and the final matches would be held on November 7th. NBT TV and T sport channel would broadcast those matches live & nationwide during the tournament; and through international networks to a worldwide audience of over a billion households.

Apart from the professional tournament, there would be a new amateur programme including both clinics and competitions which are open to everyone and will be held from 4 – 7 November. ‘Beach Volley Around the World’ are bringing in more than 100 amateur teams from Europe to take part in the programme. There will also be a beer garden, product stalls from the event sponsors, and the Federbrau Inter Hotel Challenge.