Shock defeat for favourites blows Nad Al Sheba Ramadan Sports Tournament wide open

Sport360 staff 09:20 01/06/2017
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  • 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.

    “The key to our win was the systematic implementation of our match strategy,” Lopez admitted after the match. “We have been practicing quite a bit during the build-up to this tournament as we recognise the fact that the field is even stronger this year. So we have to be ready for any sort of challenge that may come our way.”

    Abdul Rehman Al Marzouqi and Ahmed Al Marzouqi beat Hamad Bu Samnoh and Jalal Ismail 7-6 (2), 6-3 to register their first-ever victory in the UAE Nationals category, while the Rackets Academy defeated PGP Group 2-0 to earn the right to meet Valencia Team in the next round of the Teams category.

    Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and chairman of Dubai Sports Council, this year’s NAS Ramadan Sports Tournament consists of nine sporting disciplines with a total prize fund of more than Dh6 million.

    Three new sporting disciplines have been added this year, including fencing, a fitness challenge and football for the deaf alongside padel, volleyball, futsal, wheelchair basketball, road running and road cycling.

    With the theme of ‘unlimited capabilities’, the tournament is one of the richest organised during the holy month of Ramadan in the UAE with the Futsal competition alone having an allocation of Dh2.3m.

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