Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 8, 2016 - Brazil and Italy have the honour to open the stage for the FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix 2016 Group 1 battles, as they face each other in the first match of the Rio de Janeiro tournament.
Head-to-Head
• Brazil and Italy will go head-to-head for the 25th time at the World Grand Prix. Brazil have won 20 matches, Italy four.
• Twenty defeats to Brazil is Italy's highest number of losses against a single opponent at the World Grand Prix. They have lost 14 matches to Russia.
• Brazil can make it 10 wins in a row against Italy for the first time. They previously had a nine-match winning streak from 1999-2007.
• Brazil last lost to Italy at the World Grand Prix on 8 August 2010, 3-1.
• Brazil and Italy both played their final match of the 2015 World Grand Prix against each other. On 26 July, Brazil won 3-1.
Brazil
• Brazil have won the World Grand Prix a record 10 times, most recently in 2014.
• Last year they finished third, their worst ranking since finishing fifth in 2007.
• Since 2008, Brazil have always been one the podium (G4-S3-B1).
• Brazil have claimed a record 17 medals at the World Grand Prix: G10-S5-B2. Russia follow with 13 medals (G3-S6-B4).
• Their worst ever ranking was a seventh place in 2003.
• Brazil have won a record 227 World Grand Prix matches and have a record-high 81% winning percentage,
• Brazil (2009) and United States (1995, 2012) also hold the record of winning 14 matches in a single World Grand Prix edition.
Italy
• Italy (S2-B4) have won most medals at the World Grand Prix without ever winning the tournament.
• They last finished on the podium in 2010 when they claimed the bronze medal.
• They either finished 10th or fifth at the last four editions: 10 in 2012 and 2014 and fifth in 2013 and 2015.
• Italy have only won two of their last seven World Grand Prix matches, beating China and Japan on 24 and 25 July of last year respectively.