Kish Island, Iran, February 16, 2017 – USA's John Mayer and Ryan Doherty’s straight-set loss to Russia’s Maxim Sivolap and Igor Velichko resulted in an early exit from the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Kish Island 3-Star 2017 on Thursday.
Russia’s Maxim Sivolap and Igor Velichko defeated John Mayer and Ryan Doherty of the United States
Mayer/Doherty became the first casualties of the new single elimination format in the main draw, but other early favourites Julio Cesar Do Nascimento Junior and Cherif Younousse of Qatar positively delivered with a straight-set win over the Czech Republic’s Martin Tichy/Jindrich Weiss to stay on track for a consecutive World Tour gold medal win at Kish Island for Younousse.
Switzerland’s Nico Beeler/Marco Krittiger, Austria’s Daniel Hupfer/Julian Horl, and Russia’s Nikita Liamin/Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy/Artem Yarzutkin fought well against their opponents and endured the cold, rainy weather to advance to the next round with straight-set wins.
Daniel Hupfer/Julian Horl defeated Austrian compatriots Kunnert Dressler to advance to the Round of 16Ukraine’s Mykola Babich/Iaroslav Gordieiev and Germany’s Lorenz Schumann/Julius Thole earned tie-break victories to complete the first eight teams that will move to the Round of 16 on Friday, February 17.
Germany’s Schumann/Thole stunned Iran's Abbas Pourasgari/Arash Vakili to make it to the Round of 16