Qatar's Cherif Younousse (left) and Ahmed Tijan celebrate a point yesterday.
Doha: Home favorites Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan yesterday booked their place in the semi-finals of the Beach Pro Tour Finals Doha 2024 after dominating Pool A with four straight wins.
The pair delivered an outstanding display at the Aspire Zone, defeating strong opponents including Olympic silver medalists and world champions to reach the top four.
The Qatari pair continued their winning streak yesterday, starting with a thrilling three-set win over the Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalists Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler of Germany. Younousse and Ahmed rallied back after dropping the first set 21-16 to claim the next two sets 21-17 and 15-13 to fend off the high-flying World No.3 pair.
Later in the evening, Younousse and Ahmed defeated Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot of the Netherlands. In another tightly contested match, the Qatari stars secured their first straight-set win of the tournament, winning 23-21, 22-20.
USA’s Megan Kraft shoots to score as China’s Xue Chen attempts to block.
On the opening day, the Qatari top-seeded pair Younousse and Ahmed registered a 2-1 (20-22, 22-20, 15-9) win over 10th-seeded world champions Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner of Czechia.
Next up, ounousse and Ahmed mounted staged comeback from a set down to overcome eighth-seeded Italians Samuele Cottafava and Paolo Nicolai 2-1 (16-21, 21-19, 15-9).
Joining the Qataris in the semi-finals were the reigning Olympic champions and FIVB World Ranking leaders David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig of Sweden, who topped Pool B.
On the women’s side, Americans Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft, their compatriots Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth as well as Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands booked their spots in the Doha Finals play-offs.
Whether they will advance straight to the semi-finals or move on to the quarter-finals, and also who are the rest of the teams joining them in the next stage will be decided in the last pool matches scheduled for today.
