Doha, Qatar, March 9, 2018 – Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen will need to overcome home town favourites Cherif Younousse and Tijan Ahmed on Friday if they want to play in the KATARA Beach Volleyball Cup final on Saturday.
The Dutch pair are aiming for their first gold medals on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour in 2018, but face a tough assignment against the Qatari pair who are aiming for their country’s first home medal in four tournaments in Doha.
“We want to win tournaments this year, so hopefully we can start here,” Brouwer said after their quarterfinal win over Brazil’s Saymon Santos and Alvaro Filho.
The KATARA Beach Volleyball Cup began on March 6 and concludes on March 10. It is the second of 11 4-Star events that will take place on the World Tour in 2018. There are a further three 5-Star events, and the season culminates in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals in Hamburg in August.
The tournament is the fourth time the Qatari capital has hosted an FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event and it is being played at the KATARA Cultural Village.
The second semifinal pitches number one seeds Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena against Russia’s Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Igor Velichko.
Dalhausser and Lucena are aiming to win their second World Tour gold in two weeks, after their success at the 5-Star Fort Lauderdale Major, while Stoyanovskiy and Velichko are aiming for their first World Tour podium finish.