Hot favourites Fohood Zabeel went down to a 3-2 defeat to Al Hazem to blow the volleyball competition at the Nad Al Sheba Ramadan Sports Tournament wide open.
The result on Tuesday leaves Surprise Team as the lone side with an unbeaten record.
With the Brazilian pair of Kaio Fabio Alves and Vinicius Alessandro Santos alongside Ismail Ibrahim Murad Shahdad from the Comoros in their line-up, Fohood Zabeel have looked strong this year.
But Al Hazem played to their game plan perfectly at the Nad Al Sheba Sports Complex and won a thrilling contest having gone a set down early on. They came back from that 20-25 defeat to win the next two 25-16 and 25-23 before Zabeel took it to a decider with a 25-20 win in the fourth to tie the game at 2-2. It was nailbiting finale with Hazem edging it 17-15 to throw Group A wide open.
Surprise are at the top of the standings with five points following two wins. Zabeel are second with four, while Hazem are in hot pursuit in third with three points.
The encounter between Surprise and Zabeel will decide which of the two teams make it to the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, the padel competition continued with Sandy Farquharson and Javier Lopez staying on track to defend their open category title with an effortless 6-0, 6-2 win over Ignacio Valenzuela and Juan De Dios.