US’ Nick Lucena and Phil Dalhausser in action during their match against Turkey’s V Gögtepe and Giginoglu yesterday. PICTURES: Jayaram


By Sports Reporter/Doha


Lars Fluggen and Markus Bockermann remain on track for their fourth podium finish of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour as they reached semifinals of the Qatar Open yesterday.
The German duo overcome Italy’s Alex Ranghieri and Adrian Carambula with a 2-0 (21-16, 22-20) victory that sets up a semifinal meet with US’ John Hyden and Tri Bourne, who defeated Venezuela’s Jackson Henriquez and Jesus Villafane 2-0 (21-19, 21-18).
The other semifinal top-seed US team of Nick Lucena and Phil Dalhausser will take on France’s Youssef Krou and Edouard Rowlandson.
Lucena and Dalhausser defeated Turkey’s Volkan Gogtepe and Murat Giginoglu 2-1 (21-15, 20-22, 15-10), while Krou and Rowlandson beat Norway’s Oivind Hordvik and Bjarte Usken 2-0 (29-27, 21-15).
“It was a big fight against Ranghieri and Carambula and feels good to defeat them,” Bockermann said. “We always have really tight games against them, but we have won the last four games and they have been really good games. So now we can look forward to the semifinal.”
Bockermann and Fluggen have made a breakthrough this year by finishing on the podium at three World Tour events this year.
They started the year in spectacular style by winning gold at the Fuzhou Open and then won silvers at the Rio de Janeiro and Xiamen Opens.
“We’re looking forward to it (the final) and want to have fun,” Fluggen said. “We had a pretty good run the last two months. Two weeks ago in Turkey we finished ninth and it was the worst result and now the semifinal, it feels awesome.”
Hyden and Bourne overcame their quarterfinal curse of recent tournaments to reach their first semifinal of 2015.
The pair enjoyed their biggest success in 2014 when they won gold at the Berlin Grand Slam, but since then they have lost in seven quarterfinals before they defeated Henriquez and Villafane.
“I don’t think we’ve been playing up to our potential this year,” Hyden said. “At a couple of tournaments I think that there are some draws that are better than others and we just didn’t take advantage of it.
“This tournament we’ve been playing really well and battling and hopefully we can keep that going and get back to a final.
“We got down in the second and we settled down and started to make plays and we hung in there and pulled that one out.”
The FIVB Qatar Open is last of three open events on the 2015 portion of the 2016 FIVB World Tour calendar and started on Monday.  It will continue till Friday at the Qatar Beach Volleyball Academy in the Al Gharafa Sports Club in Doha when the semifinals and medal matches take place.