Yangzhou, China, October 12, 2018 – Ahmed Tijan and Cherif Younousse made a late run in the third set to win 2-1 (21-19, 16-21, 15-10) against China’s Gao Peng and Ha Likejiang in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Yangzhou 4-star.
After losing their first match in the pool play round, Ahmed Tijan and Younousse’s game started to pick up when they posted a 2-1 (26-24, 18-21, 15-8) win over Italy’s Marco Caminati and Enrico Rossi.
In their second match, the Chinese pair led in the third set 8-5, but the Qataris became more consistent and coherent in their plays and staged a 10-2 run, snatching set and match.
“It was a good match and an important match for us,” Cherif said. “We had a bad start in the competition, so that was our wake up call. We had a nice fight against Italy in the morning and we also had a good one against China.
“The third set was very tight. It was tied at 5-5 and then suddenly they were leading 8-5. We had to do something and it was sort of a go hard or go home situation, so we fought back. I even did a miracle ace and I think that broke their momentum.”
“We communicated very well and we were mentally strong coming into this match,” Ahmed Tijan said. “We didn’t give up and we kept fighting. In the end, it was our opponents who gave up.”
Quick links - Beach volleyball:FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour - YangzhouFIVB.com - Beach volleyballLatest VideosFacebookTwitterInstagramIn other matches Round 1 matches, Russia’s Taras Myskiv and Valeriy Samoday beat their third-seeded compatriots Nikita Liamin and Igor Velichko 2-0 (21-16, 21-17), while Latvia’s Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs defeated Australia’s Cole Durant and Damien Schumann (21-17, 21-11).
Austria’s Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller, USA’s Casey Patterson and Stafford Slick, Brazil’s Alison Cerutti and Andre Loyola Stein, and Poland’s Jakub Szalankiewicz and Maciej Rudol all recorded straight-set wins to cruise to the next round.
USA’s Miles Evans and William Kolinske advanced to the second round by way of a forfeit by their Ukrainian rivals Sergiy Popov and Iaroslav Gordieiev.