The Latvian duo Mārtiņš Pļaviņš/Mihails Samoilovs started the Beach Pro Tour (BPT) “Elite 16” series tournament in Doha on Tuesday with a loss in the first round of qualification.
Pļaviņš/Samoilovs, seeded 13th in the qualification, lost 13:21, 19:21 to the fourth-seeded Spaniards Adrian Gavir and Pavlo Errera. For participating in the tournament, the Latvian duo earned 340 world ranking points and finished tied for 21st place.
On Tuesday, the other Latvian duo Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Jānis Šmēdiņš, who are seeded sixth and will start the BPT season with a fight against the Americans Timothy Brewster and Kyle Friend, who are seeded 11th in the competition, will also take part in the qualifying match. In order to enter the main competition, it is necessary to overcome two rounds of games.
European champions Tīna Laura Graudiņa and Anastasija Samoilova secured participation in the main competition in the women’s competition. They finished the previous season’s competition right there in Doha just the previous week, remaining one point away from entering the quarter-finals of the BPT final tournament.
