Qatar's in-form Younousse and Tijan target last 8 berth

Doha: Qatar’s in-form beach volleyball duo Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan will be looking to eliminate Chilean cousins Marco and Esteban Grimalt today as they aim to secure a quarter-final berth at the Paris Olympics today.

The Tokyo Olympics bronze winners Younousse and Tijan, unbeaten in the Paris Games, will meet the former Pan American and South American champions in the last Round of 16 tie.

While the Qataris stormed to the second round with a dominant record, having clinched three straight wins in Pool A, the Grimalts had to win the ‘Lucky losers’ clash’ against Canada’s Samuel Schachter and Daniel Dearing late on Saturday.

However, following an early retirement of the Canadian pair due to Dearing’s injury, the 23rd-seeded Chileans won by forfeit to advance.

Younousse and Tijan are again on a collision course against the world’s number one team David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig of Sweden, who yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals after stopping Noslen Diaz and Jorge Alayo of Cuba with a hard-earned 2-1 (21-11, 26-28, 15-11) win.

Younousse and Tijan had earlier stunned the top seeds Ahman and Hellvig in their second pool stage match.

Germany’s Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler were the first to advance to the quarter-finals after overcoming fourth-seeded George Wanderley and Andre Stein of Brazil, yesterday with a straight-set win (21-16, 21-17).

Ehlers and Wickler will next take on Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot of the Netherlands, who also reached the quarters after knocking out the reigning world champions Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner 2-0 (21-18, 21-16).

In the last Round of 16 match, Brazil’s Evandro Oliveira and  Arthur Mariano defeated Netherlands’ Steven van de Velde and Matthew Immers 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) to advance. They will meet Ahman and Hellvig next, searching for a place in the semi-finals which will take place on August 8.

The gold medal match is scheduled to take place on August 10 at the picturesque venue built at the foot of the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris.