Defending champions Markus Bockermann and Lars Fluggen of Germany and Austrian pair Alexander Huber-Robin Seidl entered the semi-finals of the $75,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Qatar Open yesterday.


Action from the match between Italy and Latvia at the Qatar Beach Volleyball Academy courts.

At the Qatar Beach Volleyball Academy courts, Bockermann-Fluggen defeated Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo  (2-0) 28-26, 21-19 in 42 minutes, while Huber- Seidl got past Michal Bryl and Kacper Kujawiak of Poland 2-0 (21-17, 22-20) in just half-an-hour of time.
The campaign of Qatar’s Julio Cesar Do Nascimento Jr and Ahmed Tijan came to an end when they lost to top-seed pair of Jacob Gibb-Casey Patterson from the USA 2-0 (21-18, 21-17) in the first round on Wednesday.
The Qatar pair squeezed through the knock-out round on the strength of the sole win in pool play over third-seed Chaim Schalk and Ben Saxton of Canada. However, the hosts best-bet pair Jefferson Santos and Cherif Younousse, winners of the opening FIVB World Tour tournament of the year on Kish Island, bowed out, coming out worst on a three-way tie to finish bottom of their pool.
In the round two Huber- Seidl defeated Austria’s Bo Soderberg and Cole Durant (2-0) 21-17, 21-19. Soderberg’s is aiming for the final of the AVC Continental Cup which is likely to determine whether Australia’s men will play at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games.
The Continental Cup features two teams per country per gender which means that Soderberg will play alongside Durant, his usual partner on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships. Josh Court and Damien Schumann are likely to complete the quartet.
The tournament will take place in Cairns in Australia’s north-east from June 20-26 and as such gives the Australians home court advantage as they chase the one berth on offer at Rio 2016.
“I think it will be a big advantage having the people around us and the support of a big crowd,” Soderberg said. “As we are already there it could be a big advantage not to travel.
“It is a different format, you play for your country and not just your team. You are supportive of each other and everyone wants the best and that makes a really good mate-ship and support in the team.”
The 38-year-old has been based in Adelaide for 15 years where he trains at the Australian Institute of Sport. He continued to play for his home country of Denmark until 2012 and then focused solely on Australian National Tour tournaments.
In 2015 though Soderberg made his debut for Australia alongside Durant at, appropriately enough, the Rio de Janeiro Open where the pair reached the second knockout round.
In March Soderberg and Durant won silver at the Asian Beach Volleyball Championship on Manly Beach in Sydney. They helped the hosts complete a clean sweep alongside gold medallists Chris McHugh and Isaac Kapa and Schumann and Court who won bronze.