The Qatar duo of Jefferson Pereira and Cherif Younousse topped Pool B in the Beach Volleyball World Championships after a convincing 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) win over second-seeded Latvians Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins in Vienna.
With this win they avenged a 2-1 loss to the Latvians at the 2015 FIVB Xiamen Open to even their head-to-head record at 1-1 in FIVB World Tour competition.
Qatar finished their Pool B engagements with a 3-0 record while Latvia are second with two wins and a loss. Germany’s Markus Bockermann/Lars Fluggen are third while Jhonatan Golindanoa and Carlos Rangel of Venezuela finished 4th.
 Both Latvia and Qatar have advanced to the knockout phase and will play Thursday.
The Qatari duo have made impressive progress since their historic performance in The Hague, finishing ninth at Rio 2016 Olympic Games and winning their first-ever gold medal in the FIVB World Tour in Kish Island also last year.
“I believe we can repeat what we did in The Hague and, why not, even get further”, Jefferson said.  “We did well in the pools round and Cherif really enjoys playing these big tournaments. He connects really well with the supporters and plays with happiness and the fans here have been amazing so far. 
“We are more confident after what we did and we feel we can compete in the top, so maybe we can surprise people again”.
The 28-year-old player also trusts his own lucky charm to claim a good result in Vienna. Jefferson has grown a goatee to compete in the World Championships, one that has earned him the nickname “The Rock” (in a reference to American actor and professional wrestler Dwayne Johnson).
“It all started in a regional tournament in Asia”, he recalls. “I was wearing the goatee and was playing with a lot of intensity, hitting the ball really hard and people starting calling me ‘The Rock’. We got a pretty good result there and since then I decided to grow it to every important tournament we play, especially the Olympics and the World Championships. It has worked so far and I hope it does again this time”.


Qatar’s Jefferson Pereira in action in Vienna.
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