Beach volleyball: Star line-up promises spike in interest

Each year the organisers of the New Zealand Beach Volleyball Open lay claim to having assembled the best and most competitive field.

They may have to roll out a new line in 2011 though, as they have outdone themselves this year.

With two teams ranked inside the top five and a silver medallist from the Beijing Olympics, with New Zealand's own star pairing of Susan Blundell and Anna Scarlett, this calibre of women's field has never been seen here.

It seems organisers can thank Craig Seuseu - former Kiwi No1 and a legend in the sport in New Zealand.

Seuseu coaches Germany's Sara Goller and Laura Ludwig, who are ranked No4 in the world, and managed to lure the pair Downunder for a pre-season training camp.

In turn, the German stars convinced their good friends from the United States, and world No5s, Angie Akers and Tyra Turner, to travel to New Zealand and train with them.

After this weekend's Open the two teams, with Blundell and Scarlett, will spend a week training in Auckland before travelling to Sydney for a 10-day training block.

Seuseu said it was a major coup for the NZ Open to have two top-five teams headlining the tournament.

"We managed to get the fifth ranked team in the world, the Americans, to come down here as well so that's worked out really well for us," he said.

"It's by far and away the best women's field we've had. I think in the past we've had maybe one team in the top 20 in any given year. But we've never had two in the top five and then to have a silver medallist in Beijing here as well is huge."

The Chinese pairing of Tian Jia and Wang Fei are the other top international act set to wow spectators at Auckland's ASB Tennis Centre this weekend. Tian Jia, arguably China's greatest beach volleyballer, won a silver in Beijing with former playing partner Wang Jie.

With such an international line-up assembled, Blundell and Scarlett will have their work cut out as they try to be the first Kiwis to win the women's title.

The New Zealand No1s have twice finished runners-up at the tournament, but after a strong year on the world tour, in which they climbed from 60th to 33rd in the rankings, the pair are confident they have the goods to challenge the top international teams.

Blundell and Scarlett came close to upsetting the Germans in the final of the Mt Maunganui round of the New Zealand tour last weekend, but were unable to match the ball control and power of Goller and Ludwig.

It was just the right start to the season for the German pair after their breakthrough season on the world tour last year. Goller and Ludwig, who have teamed up for the past seven years, had an outstanding 2009 season on the FIVB World Tour and European Tours.

They won three bronze medals on the tour to boost their world ranking from around 20 to inside the top five. The pair were also the points leaders on the European tour.

Ludwig said they hoped to carry through their strong form this season and make further gains as they eye a medal finish at the London Olympics in 2012, after finishing a disappointing ninth in Beijing.

"We really want to win a medal in London. We don't just want to be there to compete, we want to do really well."

Ludwig said Seuseu had been a big part of her team's success last year and she believed he could lead them to the Olympic podium.

The German pair may hold the key to Seuseu's own Olympic dream.

He came agonisingly close to making the Olympics as both a player (in Sydney 2000) and as coach in 2008, when Kirk Pitman and Jason Lochhead narrowly missed out on qualifying for Beijing.

He said the opportunity to coach a top team at the Olympics was one of the big drawcards to working with the pair when he was first approached 15 months ago.

"We're just working year by year and seeing how things go with the arrangement, but it is something in the back of my mind if things do continue and it would be fantastic to go to an Olympics."

SAND'S UP

NZ Beach Volleyball Open
* When: Today to Sunday.
* Where: ASB Tennis Centre, Auckland.