The pool matches offered mixed feelings for local players with the lead duo of Jefferson Santos Pereira and Cherif Younousse bowing out of the Qatar Open 2016, while newcomers Ahmed Tijan and Julio Cesar Do Nascimento booking a spot in the first round on Wednesday.
At the Qatar Beach Volleyball Academy courts, both the Qatari teams suffered defeats in their third and last group matches but Tijan and Nascimento survived in the Pool C as third seeds Chaim Schalk and Ben Saxton of Canada were beaten in all their three matches.
The pool was topped by Italian Ingrosso brothers Matteo and Paolo who won all their matches. Second Canadian pair of Sam Pedlow and Grant O’Gorman was second after beating Tijan and Nascimento in three tough sets.
The Ingrosso brothers delivered the knock out punch to Schalk and Saxton beating them in straight sets by 21-15 21-19.
Tijan and Nascimento lost against top seeds Jake Gibbs and Casey Patterson from the USA in first round by 21-18 & 21-17.
Pereira and Younousse lost their final group H match to Italians Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo rather tamely. Pereira did not stretch much in a bid not to hurt his groin again and after fighting hard in the opening set, they surrendered and lost the second set at 14.
With this defeat, the prospects of advancing for Pereira and Younousse became bleak. And on the other hand, Australians Cole Durant and Bo Soderberg, whom Pereira and Younousse had beaten yesterday, posted a three-set win over Norwegian qualifiers Kvamsdal Morten and Christian Sandlis Sorum.
So from the Pool H, the Italian qualified as the toppers. The Australian, the Norwegian and the Qatari teams had the same points four from one win and two losses but the first two booked their places in the next rounds, while the Qataris went out due to poorer quotient.
Other seeds in the event stayed on with No. 2 Austrians Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst, No. 4 Polish Grezegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel and No 5 Russians Konstantin Semenov and Viacheslav Kraslinikov all winning enough points.