+ A
A -
Tribune News Network
Tokyo
Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan progressed to the semi-finals of the Tokyo 2020 men’s Olympic beach volleyball tournament after a straight sets victory over Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo at Shiokaze Park on Wednesday.
In the quarter-finals, Nicolai and Lupo could not hold on to the three-point lead they opened early into their match with Cherif and Ahmed. After 8-8, the Qatari team took control of the scoreboard and never let go through the end of the first set.
The second set was far more competitive, and the Italians even pushed it to overtime. They denied two Qatari match points, but on the third one Cherif killed to stop the clocks at 2-0 (21-17, 23-21).
“I’m grateful to be in the semi-final, because it took us maybe six or seven years to build this team. It’s a long process. But we trust the process.
“For sure, the road is going to be very difficult; there will be some ups and downs. But we didn’t give up and we’re thankful to be here,” said Cherif.
“It was a very tough game mentally. They were playing really well and not giving up. Now we’ll get a good rest, because tomorrow we are going to be here again,” he added.
In the semi-finals to be held on Thursday, the Qatari duo will take on the reigning world champions Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy of the Russian Olympic Committee who booked their last four spot beating Germany’s Julius Thole and Clemens Wickler 2-0 (21-16, 21-19) on Wednesday.
The two sets of the quarter-final between Krasilnikov/Stoyanovskiy and Thole/Wickler unfolded following similar patterns.
The Germans had a slight early lead; then the world champs stepped in front.
Thole and Wickler kept the fire burning, but were only able to catch up occasionally without regaining control through the ends of the sets.
At first match point, Stoyanovskiy delivered the winner in an extraordinary manner. In an attempt to block, he practically set the ball for himself and then hammered it into the opponents’ side to celebrate with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-19) victory.
Earlier in the day, Latvia’s Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs shocked defending Olympic champion Alison Cerutti and his Brazilian partner Alvaro Filho 2-0 (21-16, 21-19).
On Thursday, Plavins and Tocs will face Norway’s Anders Mol and Christian Sorum in a duel for a place in Saturday’s final.
The Norwegians defeated Ilya Leshukov and Konstantin Semenov of ROC in the first quarter-final of the day.
After losing their pool match to the same opponents in straight sets, Mol and Sorum got back at Leshukov and Semenov with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) win.
“The feeling is amazing! Now we are really, really happy. We played a real good game today and the Russians also played a really good game. I think we played better than in the pool and that was the difference. We made fewer mistakes,” Mol said after the match.
“Fighting for the medal now at the Olympics is just a dream come true, and we hope to bring some medals back to Norway.”
Tokyo
Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan progressed to the semi-finals of the Tokyo 2020 men’s Olympic beach volleyball tournament after a straight sets victory over Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo at Shiokaze Park on Wednesday.
In the quarter-finals, Nicolai and Lupo could not hold on to the three-point lead they opened early into their match with Cherif and Ahmed. After 8-8, the Qatari team took control of the scoreboard and never let go through the end of the first set.
The second set was far more competitive, and the Italians even pushed it to overtime. They denied two Qatari match points, but on the third one Cherif killed to stop the clocks at 2-0 (21-17, 23-21).
“I’m grateful to be in the semi-final, because it took us maybe six or seven years to build this team. It’s a long process. But we trust the process.
“For sure, the road is going to be very difficult; there will be some ups and downs. But we didn’t give up and we’re thankful to be here,” said Cherif.
“It was a very tough game mentally. They were playing really well and not giving up. Now we’ll get a good rest, because tomorrow we are going to be here again,” he added.
In the semi-finals to be held on Thursday, the Qatari duo will take on the reigning world champions Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy of the Russian Olympic Committee who booked their last four spot beating Germany’s Julius Thole and Clemens Wickler 2-0 (21-16, 21-19) on Wednesday.
The two sets of the quarter-final between Krasilnikov/Stoyanovskiy and Thole/Wickler unfolded following similar patterns.
The Germans had a slight early lead; then the world champs stepped in front.
Thole and Wickler kept the fire burning, but were only able to catch up occasionally without regaining control through the ends of the sets.
At first match point, Stoyanovskiy delivered the winner in an extraordinary manner. In an attempt to block, he practically set the ball for himself and then hammered it into the opponents’ side to celebrate with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-19) victory.
Earlier in the day, Latvia’s Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs shocked defending Olympic champion Alison Cerutti and his Brazilian partner Alvaro Filho 2-0 (21-16, 21-19).
On Thursday, Plavins and Tocs will face Norway’s Anders Mol and Christian Sorum in a duel for a place in Saturday’s final.
The Norwegians defeated Ilya Leshukov and Konstantin Semenov of ROC in the first quarter-final of the day.
After losing their pool match to the same opponents in straight sets, Mol and Sorum got back at Leshukov and Semenov with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) win.
“The feeling is amazing! Now we are really, really happy. We played a real good game today and the Russians also played a really good game. I think we played better than in the pool and that was the difference. We made fewer mistakes,” Mol said after the match.
“Fighting for the medal now at the Olympics is just a dream come true, and we hope to bring some medals back to Norway.”
