Kristiansand, Norway, August 11, 2010 - For the second-straight week, the top eight-seeded teams in the men's Qualification Tournament on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour were in position to advance to an international Main Draw here Wednesday at the US$380,000 Otera Open on the City Center courts.

However, the lower-seeded pairs of Sam Boehm/Isaac Kapa of Australia and Konstantin Mitev/Neven Neshev of Bulgaria posted upset wins to advance as a team to their first-ever SWATCH FIVB World Tour Main Draw where the first 32 matches in the double-elimination event will be played Thursday.

After ousting a team from Norway, the 11th-seeded Boehm and Kapa earned their first "money" round berth with a 21-15, 12-21 and 15-13 win in 50 minutes over sixth-seeded Alexey Pastukhov and Konstantin Semenov of Russia. The Otera Open competition is the 11th FIVB event for the Boehm/Kapa partnership as the Australians had only advanced to a final qualifying round once this season while winning only three of 13 matches together.

The 14th-seeded Bulgarians began play Wednesday by eliminating a team from Canada before scoring a 21-17 and 21-13 victory in 32-minutes over third-seeded Peng Gao/Jian Li of China. Mitev and Neshev's previous five SWATCH FIVB World Tour appearances this season featured three 41st- and two 57th-place finishes with only one win in six matches.

Benjamin Insfran and Bruno Oscar Schmidt of Brazil protected their top-seed in the Otera Open qualifier by eliminating pairs from Russia and Canada Wednesday. It was the second day of Otera Open competition for Benjamin and Bruno after they advanced Tuesday to the 38-team qualifier from the Brazilian Country Quota playoffs.

Beach Volleyball power Brazil will now have four teams in the Otera Open as the South American country captured the inaugural men's Kristiansand stop in 2007 when Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos topped the podium. Emanuel is playing this season with Alison Cerutti as Ricardo is teamed with Marcio Araujo.

Other qualifiers Wednesday were second-seeded. Miguel Maia/Pedro Rosas of Portugal, fourth-seeded Fabien Dugrip/Yannick Salvetti of France, fifth-seeded Hannes Brinkborg/Stefan Gunnarsson of Sweden, seventh-seeded Alexandr Dyachenko/Alexey Sidorenko of Kazakhstan and eighth-seeded Emiel Boersma/Daan Spijkers of The Netherlands.

Norwegian teams competing in Thursday's opening Main Draw rounds will be Tarjei Skarlund/Martin Spinnangr, Vegard Hoidalen/Jorre Kjemperud and Oivind Hordvik/Iver Horrem. Skarlund and Spinnangr finished second last month at the Norwegian Grand Slam where they dropped the finale to Germany's David Klemperer and Eric Koreng.

American tandems of Jen Kessy/April Ross and Angie Akers/Tyra Turner posted a pair of wins each here Wednesday during the opening women's Main Draw rounds at the at the US$380,000 Otera Open.

With the Americans' advancement to the third-round of the winner's bracket where the two teams will meet for the eighth-time on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour and 14th-time overall, the United States is guaranteed a fifth at this week's international stop in the southern Norwegian resort city where Brazilian women have topped the podium each year since the inaugural event in 2007.

With the fifth-seeded Kessy and Ross posting wins in two sets each over teams from Norway and China in the 11th of 15 events on the 2010 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar, the 13th-seeded Akers and Turner defeated a tandem from France before upsetting fourth-seeded Vivian Cunha and Taiana Lima of Brazil 21-19, 21-23 and 15-11 in 54 minutes in a second-round match Wednesday. Two weeks ago in Austria, Vivian and Lima placed second in the Klagenfurt Grand Slam stop.

Kessy and Ross, the reigning FIVB world champions after capturing the 2009 title in Stavanger, Norway, have won all seven previous SWATCH matches with Akers and Turner with Thursday’s meeting being the first in 2010 between the two teams on the international tour. Akers and Turner defeated their compatriots earlier this season in a domestic event in Florida for their only win against Kessy and Ross.

After starting the season with five-straight SWATCH "final four" finishes,a 28-5 match mark and two gold medal finishes at events in China and Italy to top the FIVB point's list,Kessy and Ross fell to the fourth spot on the international ranking list after placing 25th last week in Poland. Before Kristiansand, Kessy and Ross had not placed finish higher than fifth in their last five FIVB events with a 14-9 record.

Since Akers and Turner posted a silver medal finish at May'sSWATCH stop in Seoul, Korea, the Americans have placed fifth, 25th, ninth, 25th and ninth in their next five FIVB events to drop from eighth to 10th on the international point’s list. Kessy/Ross and Aker/Turner ranked among the top five teams on the 2009 SWATCH FIVB World Tour with two Brazilians pairs and Sara Goller/Laura Ludwig of Germany.

The teams Juliana Felisberta Silva/Larissa Franca and Maria Antonelli/Talita Antunes, the two Brazilian pairs in the top-five rankings on the 2009 SWATCH FIVB World Tour, took different bracket paths to Thursday’s schedule where the first two “final four” teams will be decided late in the day on the City Center courts.

With both teams placing on the 2009 Otera Open podium, the top-seeded Juliana and Larissa defeated teams from Germany and Italy to advance to an opening match Thursday against the eighth-seeded Salgado sisters (Carolina and Maria Clara) of Brazil. Wednesday’s two wins extended Juliana and Larissa’s winning streak to 31straight victories since losing to China’s Chen Xue and Xi Zhang in the semi-finals at June’s Grand Slam stop in Moscow.

The second-seeded Antonelli and Talita, the defending Otera Open champions, opened with a win over a team from Canada before being upset by 15th-seeded Geeske Banck and Anja Gunther of Germany 21-19 and 22-20 in 37 minutes. Since placing seventh in May’s Shanghai SWATCH stop, Banck and Gunther have not finished higher than 17th in their next eight FIVB events. Three of the finishes had ended in Country Quota playoff setbacks for Banck and Gunther with a fourth in the qualifying rounds.

In the lower half of the Otera Open winner’s bracket has two Czech Republic pairs playing teams from China and Germany in opening third-round matches Thursday. The third-seeded Xue and Chen will be challenged by sixth-seeded Kristyna Kolocova and Marketa Slukova while Banck and Gunther face seventh-seeded Lenka Hajeckova and Hana Klapalova.

Led by Antonelli and Talita, 16 other teams remain in the competition with one defeat each as the Otera Open continues through the weekend. The women's "final four" matches will played Saturday while the men begin Main Draw play Thursday leading to Sunday’s semi-final and medal matches. The winning teams will share the $30,000 first-place prizes for each gender.