Qatar rally to beat Spain in exciting beach volleyball match

Qatar’s Asian Continental Cup qualifiers Jefferson Santos Pereira and Cherif Younousse recovered from a first set setback to upset Spain’s FIVB World Tour veterans Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera in a Pool F Beach Volleyball match at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Playing in a group that also includes pairs from Austria and the United States, Jefferson and Cherif scored a 2-1 (13-21, 21-18, 15-12) win in 55 minutes. It was the two teams’ second matchup, with the Qatari pair losing to the Spaniards three months ago, in Sochi, Russia.

After being dominated by the Spaniards in the first set, Jefferson and Cherif recovered from a 10-6 second set deficit to tie the set at 13s, 14s, 15s, 16s and 17s. A quick three-point run highlighted a 4-1 stretch for Qatar to end the set.

In the decider, Jefferson and Cherif broke from a 5-5 tie to start controlling the final set and held a 13-9 lead en route to the victory.

The duo, who dropped their opening Rio match Saturday in two sets to the USA’s Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson, are now tied with the Spaniards in Pool F and finish group play Wednesday against Austrians Alexander Huber and Robin Seidl.

In table tennis, Qatar’s Li Ping went down fighting to third seed Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany 4-3 (8-11, 11-4, 11-9, 7-11, 11-5, 9-11, 11-9) in a match which lasted 52 minutes.

Elsewhere, Qatari judoka Morad Zemouri lost to Belgium’s Dirk Van Tichelt in the preliminary match of the men’s 73 kg elimination rounds.

In today’s action, Qatar will look to register their second successive win in handball.

The 2015 World Championship runners-up will look to avenge their defeat to France in the final in Doha.

Qatar began their Rio 2016 campaign with a 30-23 win over Croatia.

Qatar, coached by Spanish legend Valero Rivera, are part of Group A which consists of Tunisia, France, Denmark, Croatia and Argentina.

The match begins at 3.30pm Qatar time.