American pair reach semis in Doha

DOHA, Qatar, March 8, 2018 – Number one seeds Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena have reached the semifinals of the 4-Star KATARA Beach Volleyball Cup on Thursday. 

Dalhausser and Lucena survived a marathon first set to eventually beat Polish pair Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak 2-1 (37-35, 13-21, 15-6) after Kantor and Losiak were forced to pull out through injury. 

They will now meet Russia’s Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Igor Velichko, who beat Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins 2-0 (21-15, 21-13). 

Meanwhile, Qatar’s leading duo of Cherif Younousse and Tajin Ahmed continued their pursuit of a home FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour medal when they also reached the semifinals of the 4-Star KATARA Beach Volleyball Cup on Thursday. 

Cherif and Tajin won three matches in one day, and it culminated in them fighting back to beat Poland’s Michal Bryl and Grzegorz Fijalek 2-1 (15-21, 21-15, 15-10) to reach the semifinals. 

The 4-Star KATARA Beach Volleyball Cup runs from March 6-10, and is taking place at the KATARA Cultural Village. It is the fourth time that Doha has hosted an FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour tournament, following competitions in 2014, 2015 and 2016.