Phuket, Thailand, November 4, 2009 -- The final women's qualifier on the 2009 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar was completed here Wednesday with eight teams advancing to the opening "money" rounds for the US$190,000 Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT on Karon Beach.

With the 32-team double elimination Phuket Thailand Open Main Draw starting Thursday, SWATCH FIVB World Tour Beach Volleyball pairs from the Czech Republic, France, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Russia, Spain and the Ukraine won qualifying matches at the 16th and final women's event on the international schedule that began in mid-April at the South American capital of Brasília.

Thailand will have three teams competing in the Main Draw, including Jarunee Sannok/Usa Tenpaksee, Kamoltip Kulna/Yupa Phokongploy and Julaluk Radarong/Manerat Udomchavee. Sannok/Tenpaksee and Kulna/Phokongploy placed 13th in last year's Phuket Thailand Open.

Seven of the top eight-seeded teams advanced as expected with 10th-seeded Eva Hamzaoui and Mathilde Giordano making the only break-through after posting wins over pairs Malaysia and the United States.

For the second-straight week, the same two teams from The Netherlands earned Main Draw berths as the Dutch pairs of second-seeded Danielle Remmers/Sophie van Gestel and fourth-seeded Madelein Meppelink/Marloes Wesselink advanced. Remmers and van Gestel posted their career best placement of seventh last week in Sanya while Meppelink and Wesselink were 17th.

Also advancing as expected were top-seeded Zara Dampney/Shauna Mullin of Great Britain, third-seeded Anastasia Vasina/Ekaterina Khomyakova of Russia, fifth-seeded Galyna Osheyko/Svitlana Baburina of the Ukraine, sixth-seeded Liliana Fernandez Steiner/Elsa Baquerizo of Spain and eighth-seeded Marketa Slukova/Kristyna Kolocova of the Czech Republic.

Liliana and Elsa were seeded first in last week's qualifier in Sanya, but the Spaniards were ousted in the Chinese preliminary rounds by Ayumi Kusano and Mutsumi Ozaki of Japan. Remmers and van Gestel eliminated Kusano and Ozaki in the Wednesday's third and final qualifying round in two sets.

Phuket hosted the next to last women's event on the 2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour where Sannok/Tenpaksee and Kulna/Phokongploy placed 13th as both pairs defeated the same teams from Great Britain and Japan in the competition. Radarong and Udomchavee missed qualifying at the 2008 Phuket Thailand Open after being eliminated by a team from the United States.