Qatar’s Younousse, Tijan sail into beach volleyball quarterfinals in Paris

Qatar’s beach volleyball powerhouses Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan smashed their way to the quarterfinals of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on Monday.

At the Eiffel Tower Stadium, the 13th-seeded pair, who are also bronze medallists at the 2020 Tokyo Games, breezed past Chile’s 23rd-seeded Marco Grimalt and Esteban Grimalt 21-14, 21-13. It was their fourth consecutive win in Paris.

Younousse and Tijan stayed well in control throughout the match and prevailed in all aspects of the game. Younousse starred on the block and scored 15 points. He was instrumental in bringing in the win.

Tijan led the Qatari attack and fired an ace to tally a total of 14 points. On Wednesday, Younousse and Tijan will take on USA’s Miles Partain and Andrew Benesh in the quarterfinals.

Partain and Benesh beat Italy’s Samuele Cottafava and Paolo Nicolai in straight sets (21-17, 21-18). The US pair found success with the jump set technique, reading the Italian defence to perfection and converting for easy scores.

Benesh was a force at the net, winning multiple meetings in the air with Tokyo silver medallist Nicolai. A 3-0 run gave the Americans a 12-7 lead in the first, and they went on to take the set by a comfortable margin.