Qatar’s Tijan, Younousse enter Katara Open knockout round

Doha, Qatar: Qatar’s top duo Ahmed Tijan and Cherif Younousse defeated Quincy Aye and Arnaud Gauthier-Raof France  2-0 (21-16, 21-15) to move into the knock-out round of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 4-Star Katara Beach Volleyball Cup at Katara, Qatar, on Tuesday.

Tijan and Younousse were under pressure after losing to Ukraine’s Sergiy Popov and Iaroslav Gordieiev in their opening match 2-1 (17-21, 21-13, 15-10) but they found their touch against the Frenchmen to ensure progress.

They will take on Italians Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo on Wednesday.

Qatar’s other two teams – Mahmoud Ahmed Esham and Mahdi Badreddin Sammoud and Benlouaer Ziad and Saifeddine ElMajid failed to progress past the group phase.

Meanwhile, reigning world champions Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Viacheslav Krasilnikov hit their stride early as they won two from two on the first day.

The Russian duo began with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-12) over Ziad and El Majid and then defeated Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins 2-1 (16-21, 21-16, 15-11).

Former world champions Bruno Schmidt and Evandro Goncalves also enjoyed a brace of victories on the opening day of pool play. 

First off, they defeated Belgium’s Dries Koekelkoren and Tom Van Walle 2-1 (12-21, 21-14, 15-9) and then rounded off their day’s work by beating USA’s Stafford Slick and William Allen 2-0 (21-15, 21-17).