Beach Volleyball Prepares to Reach New Heights in 2015

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Latvia's Aleksandrs Samoilovs, left, and Janis Smedins are two-time defending FIVB Beach Volleyball World Rankings champions as nearly 2,000 athletes from around the globe are preparing for April's start of the 2015 FIVB World Tour.

PUERTO VALLARTA OPEN: 6 - 11 OCTOBER 2015

Countdown clock at 60 days for start of 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour

The Puerto Vallarta Open will be the seventh Open event on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 2015 calendar in a season that extends from late April to mid-December. It will be the first after the FIVB World Tour Finals, with points from the tournament going towards the 2016 ranking.

The pre-Olympic 2015 season includes five FIVB Grand Slams, a new FIVB Swatch Beach Volleyball Major Series, a special FIVB Swatch Beach Volleyball World Tour season Final in the United States and six FIVB Opens.

The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 2015 also launches the Olympic qualification process with all FIVB World Tour events (except the World Tour Finals) in 2015 up until June 13, 2016 counting towards the Olympic Ranking in order to determine the 15 vacancies for each gender, which will take part in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Five Grand Slams, which offer $800,000 in prize money each, will also take place on the road to the World Tour Finals. A new innovative and dynamic FIVB Swatch Beach Volleyball Major Series including three tournaments offering $800,000 each in prize money will complete the schedule. Six Opens offering $75,000 in prize money, per gender, also feature in the build-up to the World Tour Finals.

The FIVB Swatch Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals, which will feature the top eight teams per gender based on a cumulative ranking of points from Grand Slams, Majors and Opens, will be followed by a further three Open events, which will be the first events on the 2015-16 Beach Volleyball Calendar.