It was a mixed day for Qatar teams at the $75,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball Qatar Open which began yesterday.
At the Beach Volleyball Academy courts of the Al Gharafa Sports Club, Qatar’s top-bet team of Jefferson Pereira and Cherif Younousse defeated Australian pair of Bo Soderberg and Cole Durant 2-1 (19-21, 21-18, 19-17) in 49 minutes in their first Pool H match.
Later in the day, they returned to play against Norway’s Morten Kvamsdal and Christian Sandlie Sorum but lost in straight sets 2-0 (18-21, 17-21) in 34 minutes.
In the first match, the eighth-seeded Jefferson and Cherif, who won their first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour gold medals at the Kish Island Open in February, combined well to beat the Australians, but in the second game they failed to match qualifiers Kvamsdal-Sorum.
The Norwegians were playing in only their fourth FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour tournament together, having first teamed up at the Antalya Open in 2015.
At 26, Kvamsdal is the senior partner and has featured on the World Tour since 2010. Twenty-year-old Sorum enjoyed a solid age-group career before joining the World Tour last year and made his debut at the Masters Series event in Stavanger, alongside Runar Torsvik Sannarnes.
Kvamsdal and Sorum are hoping to feature in the Norwegian-port city later in 2016, when it hosts the European leg of the Continental Cup from June 22-26.
“We are happy with our show here. We qualified in Kish as well and we played four tournaments together and have qualified in all of them,” Kvamsdal said.
“Hopefully we will improve this season because the Continental Cup in Stavanger is our main goal and that is what we are playing for.”
Jefferson/Cherif will take on unbeaten ninth-seed Italian pair of Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo in their last pool game today.
The Italians defeated Kvamsdal-Sorum 2-0 in their first match and later defeated Australian pair Durant-Soderberg with the same margin.
The second Qatar team of Julio Cesar Do Nascimento-Ahmed Tijan also won against third seed Canadian pair of Chaim Schalk/Ben Saxton (2-0) 18-21, 18-21 in the 34 minutes, but lost to 14th seed Italian pair of Paolo Ingrosso and Matteo Ingrosso 2-0 (21-19, 21-18).
Earlier in the day, top seeds Jacob Gibb and Casey Patterson of the USA survived a three-set scare, coming back from a set down to beat Germany’s Armin Dollinger/Lorenz Schuemann 2-1 (17-21, 21-12, 15-12) in their opening match of the main draw.
The Germans, who had come in through the qualification tournament, were seeded 32nd in the main draw.
Germany’s Dollinger/Schumann got off to a flyer at the Qatar Open, snatching the opening set against top seeds Gibb/Patterson 21-17. The Americans fought back in the second however, and claiming it 21-12, taking the match to a tie-break.
The Americans then followed up that result with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-15) win over Turkey’s Murat Giginoglu and Volkan Gogtepe.
It was a similar story for Poland’s Kadziola/Szalankiewicz against Latvian pair Plavins/Regza with the former taking the first 21-18 before slumping in the second to a 21-14 loss to move the match to a decider.