Cherif/Ahmed (QAT) vs. Perusic/Schweiner (CZE) - Pool A #27269888

Ahmed Tijan in action

Three men’s teams started their campaigns at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Doha Finals with two wins each on Wednesday, but for two of them – home heroes Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan and Sweden’s David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig – it was a matter of surviving two tie-breakers, while Netherlands’ Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot swept both of their matches in straight sets.

  • Watch the Doha Finals on VBTV.
Pool A

After exchanging two overtime sets with their opponents, top-seeded Cherif & Ahmed dominated the third set on the way to a 2-1 (20-22, 22-20, 15-9) victory over 10th-seeded world champions Ondrej Perusic & David Schweiner of Czechia in the Pool A opening game on centre court. Cherif and Schweiner engaged in a monster-blocking duel, which the Qatari athlete won with eight kill blocks towards a 33-point match high, against six for the Czech blocker.

In their second match, the home team mounted another comeback from a set down and celebrated a 2-1 (16-21, 21-19, 15-9) victory over eighth-seeded Italians Samuele Cottafava & Paolo Nicolai. Cherif led the winners’ scoring with 26 points, topped by Nicolai’s 28, which included four aces.

Fourth-seeded Boermans & De Groot topped the current pool standings with straight-set victories over Cottafava & Nicolai, 2-0 (21-11, 21-18), and over Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallists, fifth-seeded Germans Nils Ehlers & Clemens Wickler, 2-0 (21-16, 21-19). Boermans was the best scorer of the first match with 20 points, while De Groot topped the charts in the second with 17.

Boermans/de Groot (NED) vs. Ehlers/Wickler (GER) - Pool A #27287139

Yorick de Groot dives for the ball

Pool B

Only the reigning Olympic champions and FIVB World Ranking leaders Ahman & Hellvig managed to win two matches on day one in Pool B, but the second-seeded Swedish standouts were pushed to three sets in both. First, they came back from a set down to beat ninth-seeded English wild cards Joaquin Bello & Javier Bello by a narrow 2-1 (19-21, 21-11, 16-14). Hellvig raised seven kill blocks, against five from Joaquin Bello, and topped the scorers’ chart with a total of 27 points.

In the other first-leg match, seventh-seeded Brazilians Evandro Oliveira & Arthur Mariano produced a 2-1 (18-21, 21-13, 15-12) upset of third-seeded Norwegians Anders Mol & Christian Sorum, with Arthur and Mol leading the scorers with 20 points each.

Evandro & Arthur were very close to dropping another big upset in their second match, but their opponents Ahman & Hellvig persevered through a tight tie-breaker to claim a 2-1 (21-10, 19-21, 15-13) victory. This time Hellvig impressed with nine kill blocks to finish with 24 points, while Evandro emerged as the best scorer with 32 points, including four aces and three blocks.

Mol & Sorum bounced back to spoil Matthew Immers & Steven van de Velde’s tournament opener with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-18) shutout. Mol’s blocking was on fire and he piled up an out-of-this-world 11 kill blocks during the two sets of the match, to finish with a 20-point match high.

Åhman/Hellvig (SWE) vs. Bello, Ja./Bello, Jo. (ENG) - Pool B #27265932

David Ahman in defence

Another eight men’s pool-stage matches will be played on the second day with first whistle at 15:00 local time (12:00 UTC).