Smooth start for Younousse and Tijan in Qatar Master beach volleyball
Doha, Qatar: Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan defeated Thailand’s Kitti Duangjinda and Surin Jongklang 21-7, 21-11 in their opening Pool A match at the Asian Volleyball Confederation Aspire Beach Volleyball Qatar Master 2018 at the Aspire Park on Wednesday.
The Asian Games gold medallists took only 24 minutes to dismantle the Thais.
“We’re going match by match. We’re not thinking about far too long. This is the last event of the year and this is the last piece for our cake. We’ll try to do as good as possible to grab it,” said Younousse.
They will face Oman’s Ali Al Shibli and Hood Al Jalaboubi on Thursday.
Qatar’s ‘B’ team of Assam Mahmoud and Tamer Abdelrasoul lost to Iranians Rahman Raoufi and Abdolhamed Mirzaali 21-18, 17-21, 12-15 while the third Qatari duo Nasser Ahmed Al Meer and Hamad Al Kuwari went down to Thailand’s Banlue Nakprakhong and Sedtawat Padsawud 17-21, 7-21.
Mahmoud and Abdelrasoul also lost to Kazakhstan’s Sergey Bogatu and Dmitriy Yakovlev 0-2.
Australia’s Cole Durant and Damien Schumann stunned former 2014 Asian Games and Asia champions Alexey Sidorenko and Alexandr Dyachenko 17-21, 21-19, 15-12, while Chris McHugh and Zachery Schubert defeated Sergey Bogatu and Dmitriy Yakovlev 21-16, 21-18.
Iran’s Arash Vakili and Bahman Salemiinjeboroun defeated Oman’s Nouh Jalboubi and Mazin al-Hashmi 21-14, 21-19 before outclassing Japanese pair of Takahashi Takumi and Yoshiumi Hasegawa 21-7, 21-17.
