Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan defeated Olympic–bound American pair Chase Budinger and Miles Evans in their opening match at the Elite16 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour encounter at Gstaad, Switzerland on Thursday. The Qatari duo, who are gearing up for the upcoming Paris Games, clinched the match in straight sets with scores of 21-17 and 21-18. However, the Qatari pair later went down fighting to the Brazilian World No.2 duo of Andre Loyola and George Wanderley with scores of 19-21 and 17-21. Today, Cherif and Ahmed will take on USA’s Tim Brewster and Logan Webber in their third and final Pool B match of the Main Draw.