Mexico’s Gaxiola and Rubio to meet Polish pair at Katara Beach Volleyball Cup final

Doha, Qatar: Mexico’sJosue Gaxiola and Jose Rubio eliminated four world champions to reach the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 4-Star Katara Beach Volleyball Cup final on Thursday.

First, they knocked out reigning world champions Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Viacheslav Krasilnikov at the quarterfinal stages with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-15) win, then they followed up by defeating 2015 world champion Bruno Schmidt and 2017 world champion Evandro Goncalves 2-0 (22-20, 22-20). 

“It has been amazing to play here in Doha,” Rubio said. “This is the first time we have played on the World Tour outside Mexico, so we are very excited about playing here. 

“We played really well in the first set and while it was a bit nervous in the second, we managed to hold on.”

The Katara Beach Volleyball Cup is the first time that the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships silver medallists have appeared on the World Tour outside their home country. 

Rubio and Gaxiola are ranked 96th in the world, 92 places below Bruno and Evandro, but they showed no nerves against their illustrious opponents and after they raced onto a seven-zero lead at the start of the second set they held their nerve to win. 

They will take on Poland’s Michael Bryl and Grzegorz Fijalek in the final on Friday.

Bryl and Fijalek defeated Italians Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo 28-26, 21-18 at the penultimate stage.