Doha, Qatar, May 1, 2025 – As top four seedings got their campaigns off to blazing starts, big names including John McManaway/Ben O’Dea, Alireza Aghajanighasab/Abbas Pourasgari and Kai Kurokawa/Ryuichi Adachi suffered their setbacks in their pool play action on the very first day of the AVC Men’s Beach Tour Doha Open at the Al Gharafa Beach Complex here on Wednesday.
Due to the scorching heat with daytime temperatures around 38-42 degrees above zero during this period of time in Doha, the daily matchups commence at 4pm local time.
On Wednesday, the opening of the four-day, men’s only event, current world No.9 and top seeds Cherif Younousse/Ahmed Tijan, who claimed bronze at the Tokyo 2020, their country’s first ever Olympic medal in beach volleyball, and fresh from snatching gold at the recent AVC Beach Tour 24th Samila Open in Songkhla, Thailand, pulled off a sensational victory against Uzbekistan’s Mukhammadali Otabekov/Nodirjon Alekseev after a lopsided 21-7, 21-10 win in Pool A.
However, since only two teams are featured in Pool A, both sides are guaranteed of advancing to the round of 16.
Three Australian teams, all of them steered the country to a perfect sweep of gold, silver, bronze medals in the opening-season AVC Beach Tour at the 2nd Nuvali Open at City of Santa Rosa, Philippines in early April, made strong starts in Doha with sensational 2-0 wins against respective opponents in their pools.
The 2024 Asian champions, Nuvali Open bronze medallists and second seeds D’Artagnan Potts/Jack Pearse ousted Bahrain’s Ali Marhoon/Hasan Abdlla Nasser 21-16, 22-20 in Pool B, while Nuvali Open winners and third seeds Paul Burnett/Luke Ryan beat Uzbekistan’s Dilshodbek Tolibaev/Azamat Dauibaev 21-17, 21-14 in Pool C.
Another Australian pair, the Nuvali Open silver medallists and 12th seeds Ben Hood/Oliver Merritt pulled off a stunning 21-17, 21-18 win against New Zealand’s fifth seeds John McManaway/Ben O’Dea, who captured gold medal at the World Beach Pro Tour Futures Coolangatta 2025 in March, in Pool E.
The Pool D encounter between Thailand’s fourth seeds Netitorn Muneekul/Wachirawit Muadpha, who claimed bronze in the 2024 AVC Beach Tour Tianjin Open following a nail-biting tie-break win over top-seeded Wang Yanwei/Liu Chuanyong of China in the third-place match, and Saudi Arabians Dhia Alkhawaher/Hassan Alkaibi saw the former power past the latter 2-0 (21-12, 21-19).
Compatriots and sixth seeds Dunwinit Kaewsai/Banlue Nakprakhong, bronze medallists at the World Beach Pro Tour Songkhla Futures 2025 in Thailand in early April, also had a little problem in overcoming Japan’s Takumi Takahashi/Jumpei Ikeda 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) in Pool F.
Another Thai duo, Phanupong Thanan/Nobphadon Sukphuwong, struggled to beat Nassim Malki/Kosuke Fukushima 25-23 in the closely-contested first set, but could not maintain their form in the next two sets to go down 13-21, 12-15 to the Japan’s 9th seeds in Pool G.
Earlier, the Japanese duo faced a stiff challenge to beat Iran’s seventh seeds Alireza Aghajanighasab/Abbas Pourasgari, bronze medallists at the 2024 Asian Championships in Philippines and 24th Samila Open in Thailand, 2-1 (26-24, 17-21, 15-10) in their Pool G opener.
In Pool H, Iranians Abolhassan Khakizadeh/Amirali GhalehNovi, who missed out the podium finish at the recent 2nd Nuvali Open in Philippines after a 1-2 loss to Australians Pott/Pearse in the third-place playoff, spent 29 minutes in defeating Japan’s Kai/Adachi, who took bronze medal at the 2024 Japan Beach Tour, 2-0 (21-12, 21-17) in their first match and made it two in a row after 2-0 (21-15, 21-12) rout of Bahrainis Saleh Abdulwahed/Jaafar Aliishi.
Two more pool-play matches will be contested on Thursday, May 1 at 4pm local time. However, drawing of lots for round of 16 will be conducted at the official hotel, La Maison, at 10am, with qualified teams requested to join the ceremony and get playing kits for the next round.
MATCH RESULTS
POOL STANDINGS
MATCH SCHEDULE
QUICK LINKS
AVC Website: click www.asianvolleyball.net
AVC Facebook: click www.Facebook.com/AsianVolleyballConfederation
AVC Twitter: click: www.twitter.com/AsianVolleyball
AVC Instagram: click: https://www.instagram.com/avcvolley/?hl=en
Mikasa Instagram: click: https://www.instagram.com/mikasasports_official
AVC Youtube: click: Asian Volleyball Confederation
AVC WeChat: Asian Volleyball Confederation
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.