Qatar’s Jefferson Pereira (R) and Cherif Younnouse in action during their last Pool match against Norway’s Kvamsdal Morten and Christian Sorum yesterday. PICTURES: Jayaram

By Sports Reporter/Doha


Top seeds Nick Lucena and Phil Dalhausser entered the elimination round after they wrapped up their Pool play with an unbeaten record on the second day of the FIVB Qatar Open 2015 yesterday.
At the Qatar Beach Volleyball Academy courts at Al Gharafa, Qatar’s Jefferson Santos Pereira and Cherif Younnouse and Assam Mahmoud and Ahmed Tijan also put up impressive shows to advance to the next round.
Pereira and Younnouse, who finished fifth in the World Championships in the Netherlands earlier this year, kept their challenge alive by registering their first victory over Norway’s Kvamsdal Morten and Christian Sorum 2-0 (21-12, 21-16), while Mahmoud and Tijan defeated Huber and Seidl of Australia 2-0 (21-18, 21-23) to advance to the next round.
Lucena-Dalhausser had a tough final pool encounter against Denmark’s Peter Dilling Kildegaard Andersen and Kristoffer Abell, but fought back after losing the opening set to win 2-1 (16-21, 22-20, 15-9).
“I was terrible, I think I missed six serves,” Lucena said.  
“We haven’t practiced in three weeks, but it is good that we won our pool and hopefully we will get better, otherwise we’re in trouble.”
Lucena and Dalhausser only teamed up midway through the 2015 season and they made their debut as a pair at the Long Beach Grand Slam where they won silver. Since then they have won two sets of gold and two sets of silver on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
The duo are in a race against time to secure a place at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games. After the Qatar Open they will have completed half of the required 12 tournaments and if they can continue their form into the New Year, then there is the strong possibility that they will do enough to earn a place at Copacabana Beach.
“It’s great fun, it’s the most fun I’ve had playing and having Paul (Baxter) as our coach as well is great too,” Lucena added. “Phil is the best player in the world, so it’s the most fun I could have.
“Hopefully we’ll do well here and then Trinidad for the Continental final, then we’ll be done and we can rehab and rest a little bit.”
Dries Koekelkoren and Tom van Walle remain on course to match their best finish of the season when they advanced through the first elimination round.