Beach volleyball: Qatar’s Cherif, Tijan eye spot in semis

Doha: Qatar’s World No.1 beach volleyball pair of Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan will take on Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo in the quarter-finals of Men’s beach volleyball competition at the Tokyo Olympics today.

Cherif and Tijan, who are in contention to win Qatar’s third gold medal in Tokyo, entered the quarter-finals after defeating USA’s Philip Dalhausser and Nicholas Lucena on Sunday while Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo cruised to the same stage after their 2-0 (22-20, 21-18) victory over Michal Bryl and Grzegorz Fijalek of Poland. Cherif and Ahmed defeated the Italian duo in the quarter-finals of Cancun Hub tournament in April while Nicolai and Lupo emerged victorious from the last match between the two teams at the FIVB four-star tournament in Sochi in May.