Forgettable outing for Qatar teams; Canadians on a roll

By Sports Reporter/DohaThe Canadian pair of Josh Binstock-Sam Schachter made clean sweep of the Group A matches in the FIVB Beach Volleyball Qatar Open at the Qatar Beach Volleyball Academy (QBVA) courts in Al Gharafa, yesterday.The Parana Open gold medal winning pair defeated the Austrian team of Thomas Kunert-Christopher Dressler 2-0 (21-16, 21-19) in their third group match in 39 minutes to finish at the top.The Canadians defeated Mahmoud Essam-Asef Sultan 2-0 and Denmark’s Martin Olesen-Kildegaard Andersen 2-0 (21-13, 21-12) in 29 minutes in their first two Group matches on the opening day.“We weren’t sure what it would be like playing in the afternoon and evening, but there is a nice breeze,” Binstock said after their opening day matches. “We arrived last night and are a little jet-lagged, but it is a good start to the tournament and hopefully we can keep it going.“We’re feeling pretty good and we want to get as many matches as possible under our belts because we’ve only played six FIVB tournaments together and even though we’re not in our best form we want to see what we’re like when we’re not at our best.”Binstock and Schachter teamed up midway through 2013 and after getting to know each other’s game they began to serve notice of their potential with a fourth place finish at the FIVB Sao Paolo Grand Slam and gold, silver and bronze medals on the NORCECA Continental Tour.Previously the 33-year-old Binstock played at the London 2012 Olympic Games with Christian Reader, while the 24-year-old Schachter is one of the rising stars of the beach volleyball scene, having won gold at the 2010 FIVB U-21 World Championships, alongside Garrett May.In Parana they impressed in the final where they defeated Chilean cousins Marco and Esteban Grimalt 2-0 (21-14, 21-12).“We aren’t there yet, but we knew we wouldn’t be at the same level right away,” Binstock added. “We wanted to learn how to win even when we’re not at our best and as we move up the ranks find a way like the best teams do.“Sao Paolo gave us the confidence that we could beat anyone in world and we went to Rio before both tournaments and when you’re surrounded by that level before a tournament it gives you that confidence. Now we feel we can beat anyone in the world if we play at our best.”Russians Ruslan Bykanov-Serguei Prokopiev got a walkover in the last Group A match as their opponents, Qatar’s No 1 team—Jefferson Pereira and Thiago Santos—withdrew for health reasons. The Russians finished the group outing with two victories out of three matches.Mahmoud Essam-Asef Sultan, the second team of Qatar, also lost their last Group B match against Martin Olesen-Kildegaard Andersen 2-0 (21-15, 21-18), while Qatar No 3 team Abdel Rasool-Abdulaziz Khalouf lost to Canada’s Michael Plantinga-Cameron Wheelan 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) in the Group C match.Qualifier Jake Sheaf-Chris Gregory, the English pair, failed to advance to the next round as they lost all their matches. The pair made it through to the main draw with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-17) win over Kazakhstan’s Vladislav Pustynnikov and Sergey Bogatu.