Jefferson Pereira and Cherif Younousse are aiming to show their home fans why they are enjoying a growing reputation on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour when the Qatar Open takes place from today at Al Gharafa beach venue.
The pair is in partnership since the start of the season in January 2015 and won their first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour gold medals at the Kish Island Open in last February after first serving notice of their potential when they reached the quarterfinals of the Netherlands 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships.
“It’s a big year for us and we’re keen to garner as many points as possible,” Pereira said.
“I’m really optimistic as we’ve had some great results against strong opponents this season,” he said.
The second Qatar team which will take part in the event is of Ahmed Tijan and Julio Cusar.
The two previous Qatar Opens were won by German teams - Tim Holler and Jonas Schroder in 2014 and Markus Bockermann and Lars Fluggen in 2015. Bockermann and Fluggen are back to defend their gold that they won here last November.
Bockermann-Fluggen pair will face stiff challenge this time as the USA will be represented by Jacob Gibb and Casey Patterson, who are ranked fifth in the FIVB Olympic Rankings and 2015 silver medallists Ty Bourne and John Hyden.
Bartosz Losiak and Piotr Kantor will be confident mood after they won their first World Tour golds at the Rio de Janeiro Grand Slam. The pair won FIVB World Championships gold at U-19, U-21 and U-23 and gold in Rio served noticed that they are beginning to fulfil their potential.
Italy’ Alex Ranghieri and Adrian Carambula also showed that they are approaching their best by finishing fourth at the Vitoria Open.
Olympians Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo will be fighting hard for points to ensure they qualify for the Rio Games.
They have served notice that they are nearing top form by winning silver at the Vitoria Open last month.
“A shame about the final, but we’re heading back to Italy with silver medal,” Lupo wrote on his Facebook page. “Next stop Qatar.”
The 2015-2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour calendar started with three Open events at the end of
2015.
The remaiing of the calendar will include multiple FIVB Open and multiple FIVB Grand Slam events along with more Swatch FIVB Major Series events, and the second Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals.  
The highlight of the calendar will be the Rio Olympic Games in Brazil featuring 24 teams in each gender.