The Peninsula
Top Qatari beach volleyball duo, Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan maintained their unbeaten run to top their group and made it to the next round at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships yesterday.
In Hamburg, Germany, the world’s number-six ranked pair had no difficulty in defeating their Belgian counterparts Dries Koekelkoren and Tom Van Walle in straight sets (21-15, 21-15) advance to the round of 32 in the $1m event.
Cherif were among eight pairs who topped their respective groups to advance in the men’s and women’s divisions yesterday.
Yesterday’s win was their third back-to-back win in the tournament this year.
In their previous Pool D matches, Cherif and Ahmed had beaten their Czech counterparts, Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner 2-1 (18-21, 21-13, 18-16). They had beaten Italy’s Enrico Rossi and Adrian Ignacio Carambula in their opening match last Friday in a similar manner.
The three wins have earned them six points and now they will wait for draw which decides their opponents in the elimination round which begins on Thursday.
The Qatari pair is the leading duo in Asia, having won the Asian Games and Asian Championship staying undefeated throughout. Besides, they have won three bronze medals in high-ranking events on the FIVB Beach World Tour.
Today, the second Qatari pari at World Championships, Assam Ahmed Mahmoud and Tamer Abdelrasoul will meet Stafford Slick and William Allen of USA in their last Pool E match.
Assam and Tamer have lost both of their previous matches in the first round.