Qatar's Ahmed Tijan (left) and Cherif Younousse celebrate a point yesterday.
DOHA: Qatari pair of Ahmed Tijan and Cherif Younousse cruised to the Round of 24 on the opening day of FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 4-Star Katara Beach Volleyball Cup after beating a French duo yesterday.
Tijan and Younousse put up a dominant display to beat Quincy Aye and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat 2-0 (21-16, 21-15).
Meanwhile, reigning world champions Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Viacheslav Krasilnikov hit their stride early as they won two from two on the first day of the main draw.
The Russian duo began with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-12) over Qatar’s Benlouaer Ziad and Saifeddine El Majid and then defeated Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins 2-1 (16-21, 21-16, 15-11).
Krasilnikov wrapped up the win over Samoilovs and Smedins with an ace after Stoyanovskiy had brought up the first match ball by dominating at the net.
“It was a really tough game,” Stoyanovskiy said.
“They have changed their coach and play differently with more spikes on the second ball. That was a problem for us in the whole match, especially in the first set.
“We found the key to overcome that and we put more pressure on their service to bring them away from the net and that was fruitful for us.”
Stoyanovskiy and Viacheslav enjoyed a stellar 2019 in which they won gold at the Hamburg 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships and ended the season by topping the podium at the Rome 2019 FIVB World Tour Finals.
Meanwhile, 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).
“Of course, two victories mean it is a good start, it is what everyone is trying to do,” Bruno said. “The air here is so different to Brazil though. It is more humid there and the ball moves differently here, it floats more.
“Then there is the wind which makes it change even more and affects the speed of the ball. It took us a while to adapt in the first match, but that is beach volleyball and you have to adapt. It is the first tournament of the year and everyone is working to adapt to the different conditions.”
The men-only tournament is running from March 9-13 at Katara Cultural Village in the north of the city. It is the second of nine 4-Star events on the 2019-2020 calendar and the winners will leave with 800 ranking points.
Qatar has built up a strong tradition of hosting World Tour events since it hosted its first in 2014. Two more followed in 2015 and 2016, then in 2018 the tournament grew from a 3-Star tournament to a 4-Star tournament.
