Doha: Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Cherif Tijan yesterday maintained their top form to storm into the quarter-finals of the Olympic beach volleyball competition for the second time in a row. The Tokyo 2020 Games bronze medalists dominated Chilean cousins Marco and Esteban Grimalt to clinch a 21–14, 21–13 victory in the Round of 16. The victory in the last Round of 16 clash under lights at the picturesque venue next to the Eiffel Tower, also meant that Younousse and Ahmed stay perfect in Paris.
Younousse and Ahmed barely encountered stiff resistance from the former Pan American and South American champions in yesterday’s 38-minute affair, which turned out to be the biggest win margin among all Round of 16 clashes. The Qatari duo’s opponents in the Wednesday’s quarter-final will be Miles Partain and Andy Benesh of the United States, who secured a commanding victory over Italy’s Samuele Cottafava and Paolo Nicolai earlier yesterday. As the youngest Olympic men’s beach volleyball team in US history, Partain and Benesh overcame the seasoned Italian pair, which included Tokyo Games silver winner Nicolai, in straight sets with scores of 21-17 and 21-18.
In the morning session, Spanish veterans Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira also filled in a spot in the men’s quarter-finals. Herrera and Adrian Gavira, ranked 17th in the world, advanced to the Olympic quarter-finals for the first time in their fourth Olympic appearance, recording a straight-set win (23-21, 21-18) against 10th-seeded Michal Bryl and Bartosz Losiak of Poland in a thrilling encounter. Next up for the Spaniards are the reigning Olympic champions Anders Mol and Christian Sorum of Norway, who later clinched a strong win over USA’s Miles Evans and Chase Budinger.
Mol and Sorum, seeded No.2 at the Paris Games, outplayed the 19th-seeded Evans and Budinger in straight sets (21-16, 21-14) with little difficulty in under 39 minutes. The quarter-finals take place today and tomorrow.
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