Stare Jablonki, Poland, August 4, 2010 – During the first two rounds of women's group matches, only one pool saw the top two-seeded pairs win as expected in Mazury Orlen Grand Slam here Wednesday.

Pool A finished as expected Wednesday with the teams of top-seeded Juliana Felisberta Silva/Larissa Franca of Brazil and 16th-seeded Cristine "Saka" Santanna/Andrezza "Rtvelo" Martins of Georgia are both unbeaten after defeating the 17th- and 32nd-seeded teams from the Czech Republic and Poland, respectively.

The Brazilians and Georgians will meet Thursday to secure the Pool A title. This will be the third time for Saka and Rtvelo to challenge Juliana and Larissa on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour with the Brazilians holding a 2-1 edge in the series. The Georgians' only win was a forfeit victory at the 2008 Austrian Grand Slam when Saka and Rtvelo posted their best international Beach Volleyball placement with a fourth in Klagenfurt prior to their appearance in the Beijing Olympic Games.

With two victories Wednesday, Juliana and Larissa increased their match winning streak to 24-straight. By topping the podium at the last three SWATCH FIVB World Tour stops in Norway, Switzerland and Austria, Juliana and Larissa are now in position to tie the record of 35 gold medal finishes for a team set in 2008 by American Olympic and world champions Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh.

If Saka and Rtvelo can snap Juliana and Larissa's victory streak, the Georgians will have upset two of the SWATCH FIVB World Tour top teams. At last week's Austrian Grand Slam, Saka and Rtvelo won their pool with a 3-0 match mark, including a 24-26, 21-17 and 15-10 victory over second-seeded Maria Antonelli and Talita Antunes of Brazil.

After failing to qualify for the Main Draws in two of their first five events this season, Saka and Rtvelo have improved their play in their last five appearances highlighted by a fifth-place finish at last week's Austrian Grand Slam. The Georgians posted a 5-8 match record in their first five events before rebounding to capture 16 of their last 24 matches to enter this week as the No. 17-ranked team on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour.

Antonelli and Talita rebounded from their pool disappointment in Klagenfurt to clinch their group Wednesday after defeating teams from Italy and Austria. The Brazilians conclude Pool B play Thursday against 15th-seeded Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler of Germany, who were upset twice Wednesday by the Austrian and Italians teams to net Antonelli and Talita the group title.

Angie Akers and Tyra Turner led the American effort Wednesday with a pair of wins to clinch Pool C after failing to win a match last week in Austria. After defeating 14th-seeded Vassiliki Arvaniti/Maria Tsiartsiani of Greece, 21-19, 17-21 and 19-17 in 55 minutes, the 19th-seeded Akers and Turner upset third-seeded Sara Goller/Laura Ludwig of Germany 21-18, 19-21 and 15-10 in 51 minutes.

Pool G featured two unexpected co-leaders as 23rd-seeded Elsa Baquerizo/Liliana Fernandez Steiner of Spain and 26th-seeded Marie-Andree Lessard/Annie Martin of Canada defeated higher-seeded pairs from Austria and Poland to clinch elimination bracket berths. The Spaniards and Canadians play Thursday for a first-round elimination "bye" and a guaranteed ninth.

Pool H also had two lower-seeded co-leaders in 24th-seeded Madelein Meppelink/Marloes Wesselink of The Netherlands and 25th-seeded Greta Cicolari/Marta Menegatti of Italy. The two teams will play Thursday for the pool title and elimination "bye".

For the first-time this season, the men's qualifier at the a SWATCH FIVB World Tour event featured the top eight-seeded teams advancing here Wednesday from the Qualification Tournament to the Main Draw as the third of seven days of competition at the US$600,000 Mazury Orlen Grand Slam also featured the opening "money" rounds for women.

The men's Main Draw starts Thursday with the 32-team field divided into eight pools with the top three pairs in each group advancing to Saturday's 24-team elimination bracket. The pool leaders will earn a first-round elimination "bye" to be guaranteed a ninth-place finish in the sixth of six "major" events on the international Beach Volleyball circuit in 2010.

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 on the Hotel Anders centre court. The seventh annual 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.

Leading the qualifiers were top-seeded Brazilians Harley Marques and Pedro Salgado, who captured a SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medal earlier this season in China for their 10th international title together to rank eighth on the all-time list.

Salgado, who won a Country Quota match with Harley Tuesday, captured the 2009 Stare Jablonki title with Benjamin Insfran as the Brazilians upset reigning FIVB world champions Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann of Germany in the finals. It was the fifth title for a Brazilian pair at the Hotel Anders as Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos won four of the first five Mazury gold medals (2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008).

Emanuel, who missed last year's Stare Jablonki stop due to a heel injury, and Ricardo are playing with different partners this season. Emanuel and Alison Cerutti are currently the second-ranked team on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour behind American Olympic champions Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers. Ricardo is playing now with former Brazilian rival Marcio Araujo.

Other qualifiers Wednesday were second-seeded Jefferson Bellaguarda/Martin Laciga of Switzerland, third-seeded Jake Gibb/Sean Rosenthal of the United States, fourth-seeded Andy Ces/Kevin Ces of France, fifth-seeded Inocencio Lario/Raul Mesa of Spain, sixth-seeded Karl Jaani/Rivo Vesik of Estonia, seventh-seeded Martins Plavins/Janis Smedins of Latvia and eighth-seeded Clemens Doppler/Matthias Mellitzer of Austria.