KEY POINTS:
After winning the last two rounds with teammate Anna Scarlett, Susan Blundell will be seeking a home-ground victory in the fourth round of the national beach volleyball series beginning today at Mt Maunganui.
In the men's division, the top New Zealand men's team of Kirk Pitman and Jason Lochhead will be out to defend the title they won last year.
Scarlett and Blundell, winners at Wellington and Ohope, will face a strong challenge from the German pairing of Okka Rau and Helke Classen.
Rau, a two-time Olympian, is ranked 14th in the world and won the Marseille leg of the world tour last year.
Classen is a hard-hitting front court specialist.
Australian pair Alice Rohkamper and Heike Jensen will be looking to continue their winning ways at Mt Maunganui after winning at Ohope this week.
Last year's finalist, Paige Davis, is also expected to perform strongly in tandem with fellow American Jenn Synder, an experienced front-of-the-court player.
Debbie Hill (Dunedin) and Melissa Ruru (Tauranga), who were finalists in Christchurch, are also expected to do well.
It has been a tough tour for Pitman and Lochhead, with a knee injury preventing Lochhead playing in the final of the Wellington event last weekend and forcing him out of the Ohope tournament.
Their main competition is expected to come from rising French stars Andy and Kevin Ces, who had an outstanding year on the 2008 world tour with seven top 10 placings and a world ranking of 13.
Fellow New Zealanders Lindsay Brown and Brendan Heath will also be looking for a hat-trick after winning the Christchurch and Ohope legs.
- NZPA
