Gstaad, Switzerland, July 9, 2009- Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann, seeded second in the 32-team Main Draw, were one of two German pairs to gain leadership of their pools after the first of four days of "money" play in the SWATCH FIVB World Tour event as the 1to1energy Grand Slam is the second of five-straight "major" events on the 2009 international schedule.

Brink and Reckermann have now won their last 10 SWATCH FIVB World Tour matches with their two Pool K wins Thursday over Beach Volleyball pairs Poland and Austria.

Joining Brink and Reckermann as German winners Thursday were fifth-seeded David Klemperer and Eric Koreng after the pair scored Pool N victories over teams from France and China.

Three teams from the United States gained control of their group with a pair of wins each Thursday, including fourth-seeded Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers (Pool M), seventh-seeded Matt Fuerbringer/Casey Jennings (Pool P) and 16th-seeded Jake Gibb/Sean Rosenthal (Pool J).

While Fuerbringer and Jennings play a team from Switzerland Friday morning to win their pool, Gibb and Rosenthal face a major test by challenging the top-seeded Alison and Harley, who were upset in their second match Thursday 21-17 and 25-23 to 17th-seeded Jialu Li and Linyin Xu of China. Gibb and Rosenthal had defeated the Chinese pair in an opening match Thursday.

Dmitri Barsouk and Igor Kolodinsky lead Pool L with a 2-0 mark. The 14th-seeded Russians scored a 21-16 and 21-17 win over third-seeded Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos of Brazil in their second match Thursday after opening with a victory over a team from the Czech Republic.

Ninth-seeded Patrick Heuscher/Sascha Heyer of Switzerland (Pool Q) and 11th-seeded Adrian Gavira Collado/Pablo Herrera of Spain (Pool O) are the other group leaders as both teams won a pair of matches each Thursday. Heuscher and Heyer, ninth-place finishers in the 2009 world championships, play the eighth-seeded Ces brothers (Andy and Kevin) in their final pool match Friday while the Spaniards, fifth-place finishers in Stavanger last week, challenge sixth-seeded Benjamin Insfran and Pedro Salgado of Brazil.