Mixed outing for Younousse, Tijan

Doha: Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan had a mixed outing yesterday at the 2024 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour at the Al Gharafa Beach Court in Doha. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medallists lost their opening Pool D match, before winning their next encounter. Younousse and Tijan went down to Italy’s Paolo Nicolai & Samuele Cottafava 17-21, 21-17, 15-18. The local favourites then beat Americans Miles Evans and Chase Budinger 21-18, 19-21, 15-10. Younousse & Tijan, who are third in the Pool D standings, play against Michal Bryl and Bartosz Losiak of Poland today in their final group match.  

Holders Stupaczuk, Di Nenno storm into Ooredoo Qatar Major semis

DOHA -  Argentine pair of Franco Stupaczuk and Martin Di Nenno, the defending champions, secured their place in the semi-finals of the Premier Padel Ooredoo Qatar Major, while the World No.2-ranked women’s pair was beaten in a quarter-final thriller on Wednesday. At the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, Stupaczuk and Di Nenno overcame their Spanish-Argentinian counterparts Momo Gonzalez and Federico Chingotto with a straight-sets victory (6-3, 6-3), stepping closer to the prestigious Doha title once again. Among the spectators who witnessed their win yesterday, was Prima Pramac Racing’s Spanish MotoGP rider Jorge Martin. Ahead of this weekend’s Qatar Airways MotoGP Grand Prix of Qatar, taking place at the Lusail International Circuit, last year’s runner-up Martin was also seen with Argentine Fernando Belasteguin, who along with compatriot Luciano Capra, lost to Spain’s Pablo Cardona and Javier Ruiz in the pre-quarters in Doha. “Bela a great guy,’ said Martin, an ardent follower of padel. “A problem with my ankle lately prevents me from practicing it, but I really like padel,” Martin said. “I’ve never had the chance to go to a tournament, so I’m very happy to be here and witness spectacular matches in person. The similarities between padel and the world of motorcycles? Not many, maybe that you have to work a lot with your hand and wrist and have very good reaction times,” the 26-year-old rider said. “As for the players, I really like Martin (Di Nenno)...I know him personally and I was able to play with him, I will enjoy his game. And I am curious to see Arturo (Coello) at work,” Martin said. His compatriot Coello and Argentina’s Agustin Tapia were set to take on Spain’s Jorge Nieto and Jon Sanz in another quarter-final match later on Wednesday. Also yesterday, Miguel Yanguas and Javier Garrido edged past Alejandro Arroyo and Eduardo Alonso with scores of 7-5, 6-4, marking their advance to the next stage. Fourth seeds Paquito Navarro and Sanyo Gutierrez also advanced after defeating Pablo Cardona and Javier Ruiz 6-4, 6-4. Meanwhile, on the women’s side, No.5 seeds Alejandra Salazar and Tamara Icardo staged a brilliant comeback to eliminate the world number two duo of Bea Gonzalez and Delfi Brea. Initially trailing after the first set, Salazar and Icardo rallied to secure a victory with scores of 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 in the two-hour 14-minute long encounter to reach the semi-finals. Salazar and Icardo are set to face Gemma Triay and Claudia Fernandez, who later overcame the ninth seeds, Lucia Sainz and Patricia Llaguno, with a commanding 6-1, 6-3 win. Marta Ortega and Veronica Virseda, seeded fourth, also advanced when they beat Ksenia Sharifova and Esther Carnicero 6-2, 6-0. Today, they will meet the top seeds, Spain’s Ariana Sanchez and Paula Josemaria who reached the semis after defeating Portugal’s Jessica Castello and Spain’s Claudia Jensen 6-3, 6-3 in a later-night encounter which lasted two hours.

Two Swiss teams on to main draw of Doha Elite16

Doha: The three-way Swiss race for the country’s two available tickets to the women’s Olympic tournament at Paris 2024 is about to heat up in Doha this week as all three participating pairs are set to participate in the main draw of the Elite16 event in the Qatari capital, the first on the 2024 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. One was pre-seeded directly into the main draw, starting on Wednesday. The other two advanced through Tuesday’s qualification grind. The race for the Brazilian quotas might get the mercury rising too, as Agatha Bednarczuk & Rebecca Cavalcanti, who are currently far behind the top two Brazilian duos in the ranking, showed no intention of giving up hope and made sure they qualify for the main draw. The men’s main draw in Doha is also going to set the stage for the Dutch, the American and the Italian Olympic tickets race with lower-ranked teams from those countries also qualifying on Tuesday. Esmee Bobner & Zoe Verge-Depre, the highest ranked Swiss team in the women’s provisional Olympic ranking, achieved two difficult three-set wins on Tuesday, but pushed their way through to the main draw. They started off with a 2-1 (22-20, 15-21, 15-11) victory over Ukraine’s Maryna Hladun & Tetiana Lazarenko in the first qualification round and followed up with a 2-1 (18-21, 22-20, 15-7) comeback against France’s Lezana Placette & Alexia Richard.

Mike Yanguas and Javi Garrido cruise to quarterfinals

Doha: The exploit of the week is that of Mike Yanguas and Javi Garrido. After two hours and 57 minutes of battle, the number 10 on the draw eliminated in the round of 16 the kings of Riyadh and number 1 in the Ooredoo Major Premier Padel in Doha, Juan Lebron and Ale Galan, who had won the first set in the tiebreak but had to bow to a super performance by Yanguas and Garrido. The match, played on the Centre Court and finished 6-7 7-6 6-4, confirms a trend: the level of the 2024 Premier Padel is very high, and it will be a season in which we could see more than one such result. The outsiders are coming, and they strongly want the padel throne and the best places of the FIP ranking: Yanguas, by the way, had already beaten Lebron and Galan in a Major, at the Foro Italico, paired with Fernando Belasteguin.  Yanguas and Garrido, at the top of the draw, will now in the quarters face Alex Arroyo and Edu Alonso (14), who beat Ruiz/Tello (7). The other quarter, at the top, will be between Gonzalez/Chingotto (5) and defending champions Stupaczuk/Di Nenno (8). At the bottom half, however, there is a winning debut for Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia (6-2 6-4 to Cruz Belluati/Fernandez): in the quarters are Nieto/Sanz (9).  The other quarter is between Navarro/Gutierrez (4) and Cardona/Ruiz, who got the better of Fernando Belasteguin and Luciano Capra (6). WOMEN If Lebron and Galan will not be more on court in Qatar, in the women’s draw number 1 Paula Josemaria and Ari Sanchez are still in the running, despite suffering for one set. Thanks to a 7-6 6-0 win over Ana Caterina Nogueira and Beatriz Caldera, they will advance to the quarter-finals, where they will find Castelló/Jensen (7).  Five games conceded by Brea/Gonzalez (2) to Osoro/Goenaga (10), three by Triay/Fernandez (3) to Rufo/Martinez (11) and by Salazar/Icardo (5) to Saiz/Merino. A more painful 7-5 6-3 by Ortega/Virseda (4) to Talavan/Rodriguez (12). Russia’s Ksenia Sharifova and Spain’s Esther Carnicero, tomorrow’s opponents of Ortega/Virseda, are the only non-seeded pair to have gained access to the quarter-finals.

Spain’s Galan and Lebron qualify to third round

Doha: World’s  leading  pair  Alejandro Galan and Juan Lebron stormed into the third round of the Premier Padel Ooredoo Qatar Major,  while  the  title-holders  Franco Stupaczuk and Martin Di Nenno also joined the top 16 with a  commanding  show  at  the  Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, yesterday. Spaniards Galan and Lebron, who  just  arrived  in  Doha  following the title triumph at the Riyadh Season P1 tournament on Saturday,  dispatched  familiar  opponents  Daniel  Windahl  of  Sweden and Jose Marmolejo of Spain with scores of 6-3, 6-3 in 69 minutes to advance.  The same opponents had met in Riyadh a week ago when the top-ranked duo rolled over Windahl (52nd in  the  FIP  ranking)  and  Mar-molejo (82nd) on their way to lift the title.  In Doha, Galan and Lebron will meet Miguel Yanguas and Javier  Garrido  who  yesterday  fought back from one set down to defeat Arnau Ayats and Fran-cisco Guerrero 6-7, 6-0, 6-3, in today’s Round of 16 clash. Meanwhile, Stupaczuk and Di  Nenno  (3rd  seed)  also  con-tinued to show their consistent form.The  Argentinians  had  the  better of qualifiers Inigo Jofre and Luis  Hernandez  Quesada  in  straight sets (6-2, 6-3) to book their place in the next round. Di Nenno and Stupaczuk, ranked 4th and 5th in the world respec-tively,  will  take  on  qualifiers  Miguel Angel Solbes and Carlos Marti who upset Diego Gil and Jesus Moya (3-6, 6-4, 6-4) in a thrilling   all-Spanish   second   round match, yesterday. Yesterday’s action also saw impressive performances from other seeded players. The fifth-seeded duo, Spaniard Jeronimo Gonzalez and Argentine Federico Chingotto secure a place in the last-16 stage. They overcame the challenge posed by the Argen-tinian qualifiers Valentino Libac and Leandro Augsburger with a 6-4, 6-3 victory. Seventh-seeded Juan Tello and    Alejandro    Ruiz    also    advanced, defeating Denis Tomas Perino and Alex Chozas 7-5, 6-4.Earlier,  Qatari  wild  cards  Abdulla Al Hijji and Mohammed Saadon Al Kuwari lost to Spanish duo Javier Rico and Juanlu Esbri 6-1,  6-0.  Despite  the  loss,  Al  Kuwari expressed his happiness at participating in the main round of the tournament.  

Ooredoo Qatar Major Padel begins

Doha: Ooredoo Qatar Major, a premier event in the Premier Padel calendar and organized by the Qatar Tennis, Squash, and Badminton Federation (QTSBF), got underway at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex on Sunday.  This season, the event is hosting 128 of the globe’s premier players, divided equally among men and women. The opening day in Doha saw 10th seeded Spanish pair of Miguel Yanguas and Javier Garrido toppling Luis Gonzalez and Antonio Luque 6-3, 6-2.  Meanwhile, Arnau Ayats and Francisco Guerrero secured a victory against Ivan Ramirez and Pablo Garcia Rodrigo 6-3, 6-4. Daniel Wandahl and Jose Solano Marmolejo scored a win over Mario Ortega and Ignacio Piotto Albornoz 6-3, 7-5, gearing up for a riveting encounter with the tournament’s top seeds and the world’s number one pair - Alejandro Galan and Juan Lebron, who last Monday celebrated their inaugural season triumph at the Riyadh Season Premier Padel P1.