2011 was one year away from 2012 London Olympic. Many teams used this year as a last chance to observe and select players for Olympic a year later. New players won't be chosen in Olympic year as Olympic is mentally tough and intense. 16 teams participated in World Grand prix and played for 3 weeks in preliminary round. Top 7 including host China will enter the final round held in Macau and round robin by 2 pools. Top 2 play against another pool in semifinal.
PostMatch Commentary :
Nippon got the bronze medal in 2010 World Championship. Super star #12 Kimura Saori (25yo, 1.85m), #3 Yoshie Takeshita (33yo, 1.59m), #5 Ai Ōtomo (29yo, 1.84m), #6 Yūko Sano (31yo, 1.59m), #7 Yamaguchi Mai (28yo, 1.76m) were rest in Montreux Cup but back in World Grand Prix. New players included #13 Risa Shinnabe (21yo, 1.73m), #10 Nana Iwasaka (21yo, 1.87m). In 2011, Nippon remained their same set of players mostly but #4 Inoue Kaori (29yo, 1.82m) was injured in Vleague while #5 Injured in AVC in September. The team form changed using #7 and #10 to play middle later while #13 have lots of chance to play as starting player. #14 Yukiko Ebata (22yo, 1.76m) & #16 Saori Sakoda (24yo, 1.75m) were used interchangablely. But #16 with more chance to play in this tournament. Dominican #18 Bethania de la Cruz (24yo, 1.88m), #14 Prisilla Rivera (27yo, 1.86m) were key players. #14 got 21 points and #18 got 17 points. Nippon block got 1 point in 4 set. #12 got 21 points with 43% (19/44) attack success rate. #16 & #5 got 14 & 13 points respectively.