The preliminary round schedule for the Olympic beach volleyball tournaments was set by the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) in Lausanne, Switzerland on Wednesday, a FIVB press release said.

Women's defending champions Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh of the United States will play their opener against Mika Teru Saiki and Chiaki Kusuhara of Japan on Aug. 10 (09:00 Beijing time), while men's gold medallists Emanuel and Ricardo of Brazil will start against Angola's Emanuel Fernandes and Morais Abreu on Aug. 9 (13:00 Beijing time).

The two top-seeded host teams, women pair Tian Jia/Wang Jie and men duo Wu Penggen/Xu Linyin, will both begin with Austrian teams.

After the pool composition was announced, FIVB and Beijing Olympics organizing committee officials had discussed match schedules to balance the players' needs and best suit beach volleyball fans around the world watching on television the preliminary round-robin phase of the fan-favorite sport.

Preliminaries run through August 9 to 14, followed by elimination matches from August 15 to 22. Top two teams of each pool and the two best third-placed teams advance to the top 16. The remaining four third-placed teams play two playoff matches to determine the final two top 16 berths.

(Xinhua News Agency July 31, 2008)