Haikou, China, December 26, 2009 – Hosts China won both men's and women's titles at the 2009 Asian Beach Volleyball Championship on the Holiday Beach in Haikou, China's southern island province of Hainan on Saturday.

Olympic bronze medal winners Xue Chen and Zhang Xi outpowered their fellow Chinese pair of Jin Jieqiong and Yue Yuan 21-18, 21-11 in 40 minutes to win the women's title with the prize money of 10,000 US dollars.The four-time World Tour winners only lagged behind once throughout the match. From 0-2, they scored four straight points for 4-2 lead and never looked back in the first set.The Doha Asian Games champions played ever more aggressive in the second set with dips and blocks as they surged from 3-3 tie to 13-5 and wrapped up the match without any hesitation.

In the men's final, top seed Wu Penggen and Xu Linyin of China downed sixth seed Alexey Kulinich and Dmitriy Yakovlev of Kazakhstan 21-11, 21-13.The Chinese Olympic 9th-place finishers established a 4-0 lead and rushed to 17-8 as Xu Linyin scored at least half a dozen blocks in the first set.From a see-saw first half of the second set, the Chinese enjoyed their upperhands over the net for a 13-8 lead, and eventually won the top prize of 10,000 US dollars to the cheers of the home audience.

In the men's third-place match, second seed Kentaro Asahi and Katsuhiro Shiratori of Japan, who also ranked ninth in the Beijing Olympic Games, defeated fourth seed Alexandr Dyachenko and Alexey Sidorenko of Kazakhstan 21-13, 17-21, 15-10 in 50 minutes.

Earlier in the opening semifinals, Xu Linyin and Wu Penggen defeated another Kazak duo of Alexandr Dyachenko and Alexey Sidorenko 21-19 and 21-15.And Alexey Kulinich and Dmitriy Yakovlev rallied from the first set deficit to muscle over Kentaro Asahi and Katsuhiro Shiratori 11-21, 21-18 and 15-10 in 50 minutes.

Two Japanese pairs vied for the women's third place finish where fifth seed Mutsumi Ozaki and Ayumi Kusano downed second seed Shinako Tanaka and Sayaka Mizoe 21-17, 21-19 in 37 minutes.

Earlier in the morning, two Chinese women duos scored their respective victories to ensure an all-Chinese affair in the women's final.Olympic bronze medal winners and top seed Xue Chen and Zhang Xi made an easy sail, beating Mutsumi Ozaki and Ayumi Kusano 21-7 and 21-8 in 28 minutes.And their fellow peers Jin Jieqiong and Yue Yuan eliminated Shinako Tanaka and Sayaka Mizoe 21-17 and 21-14 in 37 minutes.Jin Jieqiong and Yue Yuan broke ahead from 4-4 tie to 8-4 and never looked back in the first set, then established an early 9-3 lead in the second set before winding up the semifinal match in 37 minutes.

The 2009 Asian Beach Volleyball Championship was the first of the kind in China, and the highest level in Asia, after the Asian Volleyball Confederation signed a five-year plan in June to award Haikou the hosting rights for five years.Winners got the prize money of 10,000 US dollars, runners-up had 8,000 dollars, third-placed teams pocketed 6,000 dollars, fourth-ranked duos went home with 4,000 dollars.Those placed fifth-eighth duos had 2,500 dollars each, the pairs ranked ninth to 16th also got 1,200 dollars apiece, and all other competing teams won a prize money of 300 dollars apiece.