When the women's international Beach Volleyball competition started in August 1992, the inaugural event was also staged in Spain as the Almeria event helped "showcase" the sport for inclusion as an Olympic discipline.

The USD 190,000 Hyundai Open Barcelona also marks the seventh women's SWATCH FIVB World Tour stop in Spain with other events being held in Madrid and on the islands of Gran Canaria and Mallorca.

The Hyundai Open Barcelona, which concludes with the medal matches Sunday, is being played in front of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya MNAC. The Hyundai Open Barcelona concludes a series of SWATCH FIVB World Tour events in Europe starting with the world championships at the end of June in Stavanger, Norway. The double gender events in Europe continued with four Grand Slam stops in Switzerland, Russia, France and Austria followed by "open" tournaments in Poland, Norway, Finland and The Netherlands. The 2009 SWATCH FIVB World Tour features USD 7.2-million in prize money and continues through the end of October for the men with a double-gender stop in Sanya, China. After the Sanya stop, the women's season finale is the first week of November in Phuket, Thailand.