Qatar’s World No. 1 pair Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan overcame a stiff challenge from veteran American duo of Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena to enter the quarter-finals of the 2020 Tokyo Games on Sunday.
The Qatari momentum continued into the third set, though a 12-8 advantage was trimmed to 12-10 by the Americans. But Cherif and Ahmed showed tremendous positional awareness and held firm for a 15-11 third set win.
“Thank God we won this game!” Cherif exclaimed.
“We were ready for a long game. We know each other really well. We trained in Orlando with them for about a month and a half. They know us really well. We know them really well. Even in practice, our games are always very long. So I can say we were not expecting an easy game. Now the first step is done. We’re ready for the second step. We always keep on fighting. We play some tactics, but the main goal is to keep on fighting. We never give up. This helped us come back in the second set,” Ahmed said.
“We never look at the score. We don’t care about the score. We always focus on the game, always focus on ourselves, not on the opponent or the score. We just have to play well and enjoy the game. It's a pleasure for me to play against Phil and Nick. I really feel this gratitude, but at the end I also want to win. This is my main goal.”
Dalhausser and Lucena were eliminated at the quarter final stage of the Rio Olympics in 2016 and went out one round earlier in Tokyo. Dalhausser won gold with Todd Rogers at Beijing 2008 but failed to collect a long-sought second medal.
The remaining six matches of this round are scheduled to take place today to complete the quarterfinal line-up.
The Qataris, who have lost only two sets during their fourth consecutive wins, will meet the winner of the match between Italian duo Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai and Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek and Michal Bryl.
Despite going down to the 41-year-olds 14-21 in the first set, Ahmed and Cherif stayed cool despite sand temperatures above 120 degrees Fahrenheit at the Shiokaze Park to win the next two games.
The Qataris made a 5-1 run in the second set to take a 10-9 lead en route to a 21-19 win over the United States duo.The Qatari momentum continued into the third set, though a 12-8 advantage was trimmed to 12-10 by the Americans. But Cherif and Ahmed showed tremendous positional awareness and held firm for a 15-11 third set win.
“Thank God we won this game!” Cherif exclaimed.
“We were ready for a long game. We know each other really well. We trained in Orlando with them for about a month and a half. They know us really well. We know them really well. Even in practice, our games are always very long. So I can say we were not expecting an easy game. Now the first step is done. We’re ready for the second step. We always keep on fighting. We play some tactics, but the main goal is to keep on fighting. We never give up. This helped us come back in the second set,” Ahmed said.
“We never look at the score. We don’t care about the score. We always focus on the game, always focus on ourselves, not on the opponent or the score. We just have to play well and enjoy the game. It's a pleasure for me to play against Phil and Nick. I really feel this gratitude, but at the end I also want to win. This is my main goal.”
Dalhausser and Lucena were eliminated at the quarter final stage of the Rio Olympics in 2016 and went out one round earlier in Tokyo. Dalhausser won gold with Todd Rogers at Beijing 2008 but failed to collect a long-sought second medal.
The remaining six matches of this round are scheduled to take place today to complete the quarterfinal line-up.
The Qataris, who have lost only two sets during their fourth consecutive wins, will meet the winner of the match between Italian duo Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai and Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek and Michal Bryl.