Dubai: Dubai 2020 will meet Surprise in the volleyball final at the Fifth Nad Al Sheba Ramadan Sports Tournament being held at the Nas Sports Complex.
In Sunday’s two semi-finals, Dubai 2020 fought from a one-set deficit to defeat Al Hazem 3-1, while Surprise defeated Dubai 2021 3-1 to book their places in Tuesday’s final.
Surprise looked confident as they took an early 4-0 lead, but Dubai 2021 just dug in with Salvador Hidalgo Oliva and Elvi De Los Santos combining well at the net to hand Dubai 2021 the first set 29-27.
Surprise regrouped well in the second set with their Cuban duo of Levya Martinez and Oreol Camejo propping them up for a 25-22 win to draw level.
The third set was a formality as Surprise stood solid in their serving and defence to win 25-22 to sneak clear, and then in the fourth set they once again weathered the threat posed by Oliva and De Los Santos to win 27-25.
“It was very important to get our defence and attack in order, and we did get a good start before momentarily losing concentration,” De Los Santos told Gulf News.
“But I think we were up against a strong team and we had to cut down on the mistakes and play to our strengths,” he added.
Voted man of the match, Martinez said that his team should continue the momentum. “I think we did well as a team during the special moments. We came up with all the right things at the right times,” Martinez said.
The second semi-final was equally engrossing with Al Hazem taking the early initiative while winning the opening set 25-19.
But once Dubai 2020 got going there was very little the Al Hazem defence could do as their opponents won the next three sets 25-14, 25-20 and 25-17. “There was no doubt we could take this one. We got off to a bad start, but we had to believe we could get the job done tonight,” Dubai 2020’s attacker Mohammad Yaqoob said.
Meanwhile, Sandy Farquharson and Javier Lopez took one more step towards the defence of their Open title with a third straight win to end at the top of Group A. Farquharson and Lopez beat Benjamin Cassaigne and Xavier Masson 6-4, 6-2 to win all three round-robin matches.
“From now on things will be tough for us for sure due to the quality of teams in the competition this year. Our policy has always been to take one match at a time and we will see who we are up against in the semi-finals,” Farquharson said.
“Both of us are gradually coming to our best form, and over the next few days we should be able to get even better,” he added.
In the competition for teams, Valencia booked their place in the semi-finals with an easy 2-0 result against Rackets Academy 2-0.
Guillermo Villafane and Nicholas Suescun easily got past Alan Douglas and Innocent Chimanze 6-0, 6-1, while the Ahli brothers Mohammad and Abdullah blanked George Green and Hristijan Neskovic 6-0, 6-0.
Valencia will now wait for the result of the last quarter-final between Lokoos.com Team and SHM Team.
RESULTS
(Volleyball) Surprise def. Dubai 2021 3-1 (27-29, 25-22, 25-22, 27-25); Dubai 2020 def. Al Hazem 3-1 (19-25, 25-14, 25-20, 25-17).
(Padel) Teams: Valencia def. Rackets Academy 2-0 (Guillermo Villafane/Nicholas Suescun def. Alan Douglas/Innocent Chimanze 6-0, 6-1; Abdullah Ahli/Mohammad Ahli def. George Green/Hristijan Neskovic 6-0, 6-0). (Open) Sandy Farquharson/Javier Lopez def. Benjamin Cassaigne/Xavier Masson 6-4, 6-2.
