SALALAH: Omani duos Mazin al Hashmi/Nouh al Jabubi and Ahmed al Housni and Haitham al Shereiqi moved closer to the finale with Denmark’s Daniel Thomsen/Morten Overgaard and Poland’s Piotr Janiak/Piotr Ilewicz as they all head into the semifinals of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Salalah 1-star.
Mazin and Nouh cleared three hurdles on Monday, first with a win over Kazakhstan’s Artem Petrossyants and Yegor Dimitriyev 2-0 (21-14, 21-9), then another win against Slovenia’s Danijel Pokersnik and Jure Peter Bedrac who retired after an injury 2-0 (21-12, 19-19), securing their spot in the quarterfinals. They faced another European opponents — Czech Republic’s Frantisek Knobloch and Jakub Vala — to reach the semifinals with a 21-16, 21-13 victory.
Their compatriots Ahmed and Haitham, who won both their matches in pool play, had the advantage as they cruised straight to the quarterfinals. In their match against Kazakhstan’s Alexandr Babichev and Pavel Aleinik, Ahmed and Haitham easily handled their rivals with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-13) victory.
Meanwhile, Thomsen and Overgaard prevailed in a three-set encounter with Iran’s Amir Shoustarizadeh and Mohamed Sadeghi Malati, as the latter stopped the match because of an injury, giving away the match to their rivals 2-1 (18-21, 21-18, 14-11). Janiak and Ilewicz also needed three sets to overcome their compatriots Adrian Sdebel and Sebastian Kaczmarek 2-1 (21-18, 18-21, 15-8).
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