Qatar's Younousse, Tijan top group with third straight victory
Doha: Qatar’s ace beach volleyball duo Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan maintained their unbeaten run at the Paris Olympics with a commanding victory over Australia’s Nicolaidis and Carracher in their third and final preliminary round match.
Younousse was top scorer of Qatar with 19 attack points plus four block and Tijan added one serve point besides his score from the spikes (11).
The Aussies put up a brave fight against the much more experienced and higher ranked (15) Younousse and Tijan, Nicolaidis scoring 12 Attack points with two serve points.
In contrast, Carracher contributed seven attack points and one serve point. But it was not enough to prevent Tokyo Olympics bronze winners Younousse and Tijan from winning and the duo will discover their Round of 16 opponents later today.
With the win, their third on a trot as well it saw Qatari duo take top standings with maximum points in Pool A.
Meanwhile, Italian duo Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafava made it to the next round as runner-ups.
Yesterday, the World No.13 pair went one better than the Qatari duo by knocking out top seeds David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig in straight sets 2-0 (24-22, 21-17).
Younesse and Tijan, who beat World No.13 Italians Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafava in straight sets (21-19, 21-18) earlier on Sunday came from one set down to score a memorable win over the top-seeded Swedish pair with scores reading 2-1(15-21), 2-(215)-0.
Ahman and Hellvig, who lost their second match in the pool phase will now have to wait until this evening when they will know if they are one of four “lucky losers’ that advance.