Stare Jablonki, Poland, August 5, 2010 - With Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers clinching the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour championship here Thursday by defeating teams from Poland and Switzerland, the reigning Olympic champions from the United States will face one of their toughest challengers Friday during the final pool play round at the US$600,000 Mazury Orlen Grand Slam.

It was the Americans' 21-19 and 21-14 victory over 32nd-seeded Rafal Szternel and Damian Wojtasik of Poland that clinched Dalhausser and Rogers' circuit championship to become the first men's team from the United States to capture the international Beach Volleyball season point's title since the 1992-1993 campaign.

The legendary American pair of Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos topped the world standings that season when the schedule over-lapped two years and the international circuit consisted of only four men's events. Thursday's appearance was Dalhausser and Rogers' 10th SWATCH FIVB World Tour event in 2010 with the Americans winning six gold medals with a second, third and fourth to their credit.

The top-seeded Dalhausser and Rogers entered this week's event with a combined 81-19 record against the Mazury Orlen Grand Slam field with only one team holding an edge in the SWATCH FIVB World Tour series with the Americans, who started playing together full-time in 2006 and captured the 2007 FIVB world championships in 2007 before claiming gold at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

The team with the won-lost advantage over Dalhausser and Rogers is 16th-seeded Harley Marques and Pedro Salgado as the Brazilians have won three of five matches with the Americans. Harley and Salgado's last victory over Dalhausser and Rogers was in the semi-finals of a SWATCH FIVB World Tour stop in May where the Brazilians topped the podium for the third-time in Shanghai, China.

The two teams will meet Friday morning with the Pool J title at skate with the winner enjoying a first-round "bye" when the 24-elimination bracket starts Saturday morning on the Hotel Anders courts. Harley and Salgado are now 4-0 in the competition after winning a Country Quota match Tuesday and a qualifying match on Wednesday followed by two wins Thursday.

While the pool winners enjoy a "free pass" to the elimination second round with a guaranteed ninth at the Mazury Orlen Grand Slam, the second- and third-place finishers in each group will play in the first-round of with the losers placing 17th. The seventh annual Mazury Orlen Grand Slam concludes Saturday with women's "final four" matches followed by the men's medal rounds Sunday. The winning teams for both genders will share the $43,500 first-place prizes.

With five of the top eight-seeded teams enjoying 2-0 match marks Thursday, the pairs of 19th-seeded David Klemperer/Eric Koreng of Germany (Pool L) and 20th-seeded Martins Plavins/Janis Smedins of Latvia (Pool M) produced the day's "biggest" upsets with victories over higher-ranked tandems from Brazil and Poland, respectively.

Both the German and Latvian teams entered the Mazury Orlen Grand Slam after placing 25th at last week's Austrian Grand Slam where each pair failed to advance from their pools in Klagenfurt. Klemperer and Koreng, who captured their first SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medal last month in Norway, finished Friday with a 14-21, 21-17 and 15-13 win in 54 minutes over third-seeded Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego of Brazil.

Plavins and Smedins, who had to qualify for the Mazury Orlen Grand Slam like Harley and Salgado, defeated fourth-seeded Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel of Poland 21-16, 19-21 and 16-14 in 55 minutes in their final match Thursday. The Latvians placed second two weeks ago at a SWATCH FIVB World Tour stop in France before their Austrian "disappointment."

Thursday's other highlight was the return to action for 2009 FIVB world champions Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann as the second-seeded Germans returned from knee injuries to defeat teams from France and the United States to lead Pool K. Brink and Reckermann's last SWATCH FIVB World Tour appearance was June 20th in the Czech Republic where the Germans posted a bronze medal finish.

With Mazury Orlen Grand Slam featuring the most pool upsets at a "major"  SWATCH FIVB World Tour event this season, lower-seeded women's pairs from Finland, Italy, The Netherlands, Russia, Spain and the United States broke through the rankings here Thursday to win pools and earn "byes" for Friday's opening elimination bracket schedule.

With only the top three teams from each pool advancing to Friday's competition, the main victims of the upsets were the top two-ranked Americans teams on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour - fifth-seeded Jen Kessy/April Ross (Pool E) and sixth-seeded Nicole Branagh/Misty May-Treanor (Pool F). Both Kessy/Ross and Branagh/May-Treanor were upset in their final group matches Thursday by pairs from Switzerland and Brazil, respectively, to place 25th.

Thursday's biggest winners were 19th-seeded Angie Akers/Tyra Turner of the United States (Pool C), the 22nd-seeded Nystrom sisters (Emilia and Erika) of Finland (Pool F), 23rd-seeded Elsa Baquerizo/Liliana Fernandez Steiner of Spain (Pool G), 25th-seeded Greta Cicolari/Marta Menegatti of Italy (Pool H) and 28th-seeded Ekaterina Khomyakova/Anastasia Vasina of Russia (Pool E).

Advancing as expected were the top two-seeded Brazilian pairs of Juliana Felisberta Silva/Larissa Franca (Pool A) and second-seeded Maria Antonelli/Talita Antunes (Pool B) along with fourth-seeded Chen Xue/Xi Zhang of China (Pool D). Juliana and Larissa are the defending Stare Jablonki champions after defeating Australians Louise Bawden and Becchara Palmer in the 2009 finale on the Hotel Anders centre court with Antonelli and Talita last year’s bronze medal winners.

Juliana and Larissa's 21-13 and 21-18 win in 35 minutes over 16th-seeded Cristine "Saka" Santanna/Andrezza "Rtvelo" Martins of Georgia clinched the Pool A title for the Brazilians, who now have won their 25-straight matches on the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour. The last team to defeat Juliana and Larissa were Xue and Zhang when the Chinese posted a semi-final victory over the Brazilians in June's Russian Grand Slam semi-finals in Moscow.

Five more upsets were recorded in the women's play Friday to increase the total of seed-break-throughs to 23 for the pool play matches. The 23 upsets ties the season's best for seed-break-throughs established at the Norwegian Grand Slam for men last month in Stavanger. The previous match upset high for women was 17 also in Stavanger.

The 10th of 15 women's events on the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour concludes Saturday with the women's "final four" matches. The men's pool play started Thursday on the Hotel Anders courts with the final group matches Friday. The men's 24-team elimination bracket will begin Saturday with the semi-final and medal matches Sunday as the winning teams in each gender sharing the $43,500 first-place prizes.