Qatar’s Cherif and Ahmed post opening win

Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan made a winning start to their FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships campaign, beating Italy’s Enrico Rossiand Adrian Raurich in the first round here on Friday.The Asian Games champions, who are ranked sixth in the world, won their Pool D match 19-21, 21-14, 18-16 and will take on the Czech Republic’s Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner in their second match on Saturday.The Qatari duo lost a tense first set by a mere two points but went on to stamp their authority as the match progressed.Of the 58 points they won, 42 came from attacks, with Tijan accounting for 23 of them and Younousse 19.However, all the seven blocks they scored from came from Tijan, as also the sole point they won on serve.The rest of the eight points came from opponent errors.The Qataris are seeded fourth in the tournament and now have matches remaining against Czech Republic and Belgium. The second Qatari pair in the tournament, Essam Mahmoud and and Abdelrasool Tamer, however, were beaten by Russia’s Konstantin Semenov and Ilya Leshukev in two sets, 21-15, 21-14.Brazil are the favourites to win both the men’s and women’s titles.