Doha, Qatar, April 30, 2025 – Current world No.9 Cherif Younousse/Ahmed Tijan, who snatched gold at the 24th Samila Open in Songkhla, Thailand early this month, will lead the effort to address the host nation’s challenge when the AVC Men’s Beach Tour Doha Open will be held from April 30 to May 3, 2025 at the Al Gharafa Beach Complex here.
A total of 18 teams from 9 countries featuring Australia (3 teams), Thailand (3 teams), Japan (3 teams), Uzbekistan (2), Iran (2), Bahrain (2), New Zealand (1), Saudi Arabia (1) and Qatar (1) are taking part in the men’s only event to vie for top honour, AVC ranking points and the shared US$10,000 prize money.
Teams divided into 8 pools, Pools A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H to compete in the pool round-robin preliminaries, with top two teams from each pool progressing to the elimination round – the round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals.
Qatar’s top seeds and former three-time Asian winners Cherif/Ahmed, having their sights firmly set on back-to-back AVC Beach Tour title after claiming their unprecedented Samila Open with remarkable unbeaten record, are in Pool A with Uzbekistan’s Mukhammadali Otabekov/Nodirjon Alekseev, while Australia’s second seeds and 2024 Asian champions D’ Artagnan Potts/Jack Pearse, who took bronze at the recent 2nd Nuvali Open in Philippines, will compete in Pool B with Bahrain’s Ali Marhoon/Hasan Abdilla Nasser.
Pool C comprises Australia’s third seeds and 2nd Nuvali Open champions Paul Burnett/Luke Ryan and Uzbekistan’s Dilshodbek Tolibaev/Azamat Dauilbaev, with Thailand’s fourth seeds Netitorn Muneekul/Wachirawit Muadpha in Pool D together with Saudi Arabia’s Dhia Alkhawaher/Hassan Alkaibi.
New Zealand’s fifth seeds John McManaway/Ben O’Dea, gold medallists at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures Coolangatta in March, are in Pool E with Australia’s 12th seeds Ben Hood/Oliver Merritt, while Pool F consists of Thailand’s sixth seeds Dunwinit Kaewsai/Banlue Nakprakhong, bronze medallists at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Songkhla Futures 2025 in Thailand early this month, and Japan’s 10th seeds Takumi Takahashi/Jumpei Ikeda.
Pool G and Pool H feature three teams apiece, with the former comprising Iran’s 7th seeds Alireza Aghajanighasab/Abbas Pourasgari, bronze medallists at the 2024 Asian Championships, Japan’s 9th seeds Nassim Malki/Kosuke Fukushima and Thailand’s Phanupong Thanan/Nobphadol Sukphuwong and the latter having Japan’s 8th seeds Kai Kurokawa/Ryuichi Adachi, Iran’s 11th seeds Abolhassan Khakizadeh/Amirali Ghalehnovi and Bahrain’s Saleh Abdulwahed/Jaafar Alishi.
The pool play is due to kick off on Wednesday and Thursday from 4pm, while the round of 16 will be held on Thursday. Quarterfinals and semifinals will take place on Friday, with Finals as well as awards presentation and closing ceremony being held on Saturday.
Due to the extreme heat with daily high temperature about 40 degrees above zero, the organisers decided to conduct the Referee Clinic in the evening on April 29. Participating teams also faced the same problem, leaving them to start training in the evening till 10pm local time.
The General Technical Meeting took place in the Wednesday morning at Event Hall 2, La Maison Hotel Al Jazeera Street, with Mr Mohammed Salem Al-Kuwari, Qatar Volleyball Association (QVA) Member of the Board of Directors and AVC Beach Committee Member, presiding and delivering the welcome speech to participants. Also in attendance was Ms Nattalida Sumdangdech from AVC Beach Volleyball Department.
All participating teams joined the meeting to hear the information briefing by AVC Technical Delegate Mr Srinivasan Jayaraman from India regarding the rules of the game, transportation, technical officials’ hotel, medical service, doping control, communications and all relevant technical matters, while AVC Referee Delegate Mr Nader Ansari from Iran informed them of match protocol and additional medical issues including referee health check and doping control requirements.
POOLS
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