Stare Jablonki, Poland, August 3, 2010 - Country Quota matches for men were played here Tuesday as the SWATCH FIVB World Tour returns to the Mazury region of Poland for the seventh-straight season as Brazilian pairs have topped six of the previous seven podiums on the Hotel Anders center court as last year's champions have split for the 2010 season with one of the gold medal winners playing in the preliminary rounds.

The 11th of 14 men's SWATCH FIVB World Tour events on the 2010 calendar concludes Sunday with the men's semi-finals and medal matches. The US$600,000 Mazury Orlen Grand Slam started Monday with the women's "final four" matches Saturday. The winning teams for both genders will share the $43,500 first-place prizes.

Pedro Salgado, who teamed with Benjamin Insfran to win the 2009 Mazury title, competed with Harley Marques Tuesday as the pair defeated Bruno de Paula and Fabio Magalhaes 21-16 and 21-17 in 44 minutes to advance to Wednesday's Qualification Tournament where eight teams will be seeking berths in Thursday's opening "money" rounds.

Benjamin, who won his 10th SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medal in Stare Jablonki last season, avoided the Country Quota playoffs as he and new partner Bruno Oscar Schmidt were awarded a Main Draw "wild card" spot. Salgado also won his 10th international Beach Volleyball title on the Hotel Anders in 2009 and collected an 11th earlier this season with Harley in Shanghai, China.

The winner of the German playoff was Marcus Popp and Sebastian Dollinger, who defeated compatriots Mischa Urbatzka and Markus Bockermann 21-17 and 21-14 in 38 minutes. Dollinger was playing with Popp for the first-time this week after his regular partner Stefan Windscheif withdrew due to injury. Popp had played in two earlier tournaments this season with Urbatzka as the pair placed 25th and ninth at SWATCH FIVB World Tour stops in Poland and Norway, respectively.

The teams of Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak and Marek Leznicki/Michal Makowski will compete for Poland in Wednesday's qualifier as the host country has already placed three teams in the Main Draw, including Mariusz Prudel/Grzegorz Fijalek, Michal Kadziola/Jakub Szalankiewicz and Rafal Szternel Damian Wojtasik.

While Prudel and Fijalek are currently the fourth-ranked team on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour behind Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers of the United, Alison Cerutti/Emanuel Rego of Brazil and Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera of Spain, the Polish qualifying lineup features a team that captured the gold medal last weekend at the FIVB youth world championships in Porto, Spain.

Kantor and Losiak won seven-straight matches in Porto at the event for players under the age of 19 to win Poland's second youth world championship. Kadziola and Szalankiewciz accomplished the feat in 2006 when Poland hosted the youth finals in Myslowice. Kadziola and Szalankiewciz collected their second world title last September in England by winning the FIVB's junior's crown for players under the age of 21 in Blackpool.

Entering the final "major" event of the season, Dalhausser and Rogers will be seeking their fourth Grand Slam gold medal in 2010 after winning the men's title this past weekend in Austria. The Klagenfurt final featured the first All-American men's gold medal match since June 2000 in Mexico as Dalhausser and Rogers defeated compatriots Matt Fuerbringer and Nick Lucena 21-18 and 21-19 in a 53-minute gold medal match Sunday.