Qatar’s Jefferson-Cherif in action during their match against Norway’s Eithun-Tvinde yesterday. PICTURE: Jayaram

By Sports Reporter/Doha


Top seed pair of Phil Dalhausser-Nick Lucena started their campaign on a strong note in the FIVB Beach Volleyball Qatar Open at the Gharafa courts yesterday.
Qatar’s best bet Jefferson Parreira-Cherif Younnouse lost both their matches. They lost first match to Poland’s Kantor-Losiak 2-1 (16-21, 22-20, 14-16) and later went down fighting to Norway’s Eithun-Tvinde 21-17, 21-17.
Dalhausser-Lucena defeated the 32-seed Qatar’s Ahmed Tijan and Mahmoud Assam 21-18, 21-19 in 37 minutes in their first Pool A match and then followed it up with another 2-0 (24-22, 21-16) win over Huber-Seidl of Australia.
Qatar pair Tijan-Mahmoud also lost their second match of the day to Denmark’s Kildegaard-Abell 2-1 (21-18, 18-21, 15-13).
Defending champions Tim Holler-Jonas Schroder won their first two matches to advance to the next round.
They defeated Italy’s Marco Caminati and Enrico Rossi 2-0 (21-17, 21-14) in their first match and then followed up with a 2-0 (21-18, 24-22) win over European Games champions Martins Plavins and Haralds Regza.
“The start was ok,” Schroder said. “We both have some little injuries, me with my knee and he has some shoulder injuries. We are glad we won this game, but we are not at 100 per-cent right now.”
The pair had a delayed start to the 2015. After they won in Doha last year they had to wait till May 2015 for their next tournament, a German Tour event in Munster.  The delay was caused after Schroder took up a five-month university semester abroad at Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Since Schroder’s return they finished third overall on the German Tour, finished second at the CEV Milan Masters and finished fifth at the Antalya Open three weeks ago to suggest that they have started to return to the form that helped them win gold in 2014. “We have great memories from last year, but the teams are stronger than last year,” Holler said. “It was hard the first time after he was away, but then we found some form and finished third on the German Championship, second on the European Tour and we’re getting better.”