Doha, Qatar: Qatar’s beach volleyball stars, Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan are aiming to excel in the Beach Pro Tour – Elite 16 tournament, getting underway in Joao Pessoa, Brazil, from October 16. Following a series of strong performances at the Arab Beach Volleyball Championship and the Paris Olympics, the former World No.1 pair will be looking to make their mark on the international stage once again.
Competing in Pool A in the opening stage in Joao Pessoa, Younousse and Tijan are set to face stiff competition from two formidable teams. In the first two matches, they will meet the home pair of George Souto Maior Wanderley and Loyola Stein Andre, as well as Argentina’s Nicolas Capogrosso and Tomas Capogrosso. The Qatari pair’s opening match is scheduled for October 17 against the Capogrosso brothers.
A day later, they will take on Brazilian pair of Wanderle and Andre, currently ranked fourth in the world. On October 19, Younousse and Tijan will take on Seed 16 in their final pool match. Younousse and Tijan, ranked 17th in the world, recently excelled by winning a bronze medal at the Arab Championship in Tunisia on September 10, exactly a month after they finished fourth place at the Paris Games.
In their bronze-medal match, Younousse and Tijan dominated Saudi Arabia with a resounding straight-set win, after a tough semi-final against Oman, where they narrowly missed the final after losing in a three-set thriller. In Paris, the Tokyo 2020 bronze winners missed the .