Qatari pair of Julio Cesar Do Nascimento and Ahmed Tijan ended on the wrong end of their thrilling matches and finished fourth at the “SMM” AVC Beach Tour Est Cola first Satun Pak Bara Open in Satun, Thailand on Monday.
Nascimento and Tijan, who have been performing creditably and had made it to the knock-out of the Qatar Open 2016, won the opening set of the bronze medal match against Austrlians Joshua Court and Damien Schumann, the bronze medallists at the recent Asian Championships at Manly Beach in Sydney.
But the Qatari could not sustain their high level and suffered a narrow defeat in the second before the No. 2 Aussie duo wrapped up the victory 18-21 21-18 15-10 in 55 minutes.
Earlier, Nascimento and Tijan faced top seeds and Australian No. 1 team of Issac Kapa and Chris McHugh. They had won the second set against them and could not handle the closing points well and lost the semi-finals 17-21 21-15 15-17 in 51 minutes.
The top seeds and three times Asian champions Kapa and McHugh, who have been playing together since 2012 end, won the title, overcoming Kazakhstan’s No. 1 pair
Alexandr Dyachenko and Alexy Sidorenko with a comeback triumph.
The Aussies lost the opening set but clawed their way back into the match and bagged the remaining two sets in one hour and seven minutes for the 19-21 21-17 19-17 victory and the gold medal.
Dyachenko and Sidorenko, the 2013 Asian champions and gold medallists at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, got the better of Court and Schumann in the other semi-final clash. The Kazakhs put the pressure on the Aussies by taking the opening set easily.
Court and Schumann rallied back and clinched the set. However, they failed to put it across the rivals in the decider and lost the one-hour thriller by 16-21 21-15 13-15.
النتائج
Gold medal
Isaac Kapa/ Chris McHugh (AUS) Sidorenko / Dyachenko (KAZ) 19-21, 21-17, 19-17 01:07
Bronze medal
Julio / Ahmed Tijan (QAT) Joshua Court/Damien Schumann (AUS) 21-18, 18-21, 10-15 0:55
Semi-finals
Isaac Kapa/ Chris McHugh (AUS) Julio / Ahmed Tijan (QAT) 21-17, 15-21, 17-15 0:51
Joshua Court/Damien Schumann (AUS) Sidorenko / Dyachenko (KAZ) 16-21, 21-15, 13-15 1:00
* Written by: Raajiv Tripathi, Qatar Tribune