By: Raajiv Tripathi
Qatar’s No 2 team player Abdelaziz Khallouf is immensely excited about his delayed debut on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour and said he is more than ready for the Qatar Open.
The Qatar Open, which began with the qualifying rounds at the Qatar Beach Volleyball Academy courts in Al Gharfa Club on Tuesday, will play the main round matches from Wednesday, with the semi-finals and final scheduled on Saturday.
Khallouf was supposed to join action in the Durban Open in December last year. Due to an injury, he could not go and the Qatar Volleyball Association had to withdraw one of the two teams.
Khallouf and Tamer Abdelrasoul have been playing together for some and they were third when Qatar organised the Arab Beach Volleyball Championship last year.
In the Qatar Open, the hosts have entered four teams. Both Khallouf and Abdelrasoul form the second team. Qatar’s other two pairs in the main round are Tiago Santos and Jefferson Santos Pereira and Assam Mahmoud and Sultan Asif (wild card). Ahmed Tijan and Cherif Younousse are in the qualification round through wild card.
“It is a great opportunity for the Qatari players to play in this World Beach Volleyball Tour event. We’re all thrilled and proud to be here finally at the high level event. This will help us assess our level after competing against these stars from all over the world.
“In the Gulf, Arab and Asian events, we are doing well by God’s grace. Now we will try to be the best in the world. We will try to play our best against these champions and the experience of this event will really give us more confidence and edge for the future events.
After the Qatar Open, Khallouf and Abdelrasoul will travel to play an Asian tour event. “This will be a good preparation before going to the Asian tour event in Phuket.
Khallouf is happy that the beach volleyball is fast growing in Qatar and the competition is improving.
“The beach volleyball base is increasing in Qatar. Earlier, we had just one or two teams. But now there many players and the competition level is getting better with each event. We want to thank the QVA for helping us in the best possible ways and this has given a big lift to the beach volleyball in Qatar.
“In the Qatar Open, we have got four teams but in future, we are hoping to have more teams.We are lucky to get a wild card for the Qatar Open. This means that we will play a minimum three strong matches. This experience will be very valuable for us and help us improve a lot.
“This season was a good start for us and the beach volleyball in Qatar. We participated in many events on the Asian tour. The aim is to be among the best in the future and hopefully, we will have a couple of teams in the Rio Olympics in 2016. We’re training hard and trying our best in every match.”
Khallouf added that their game and fitness are both getting better. “The physical fitness is vital for any sport. Our new coach Pedro is good. Physical trainer Andrew is also helping us in the fitness. At the Qatar Open, we know that no match is going to be easy. So we’ve have worked hard to get into good shape. Hopefully, we’ll have good results to do Qatar proud.”