Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Asian Continental Cup qualifiers Jefferson Santos Pereira and Cherif Younousse of Qatar had the energy to recover from a first set setback here yesterday to upset FIVB World Tour veterans Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera of Spain in a Pool F Beach Volleyball match at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Playing in a group that also includes pairs from Austria and the United States, Jefferson and Cherif scored a 2-1 (13-21, 21-18, 15-12) win in 55 minutes over the Spaniards in the second international match between the two teams. Three months ago in Sochi, Russia, Gavira and Herrera defeated the Qatar pair in three sets.

After being dominated by the Spaniards in the first set, Jefferson and Cherif recovered from a 10-6 second set deficit to tie the set at 13s, 14s, 15s, 16s and 17s. A quick three-point run highlighted a 4-1 stretch for Qatar to end the set. In the decider, Jefferson and Cherif broke from a 5-5 tie to start controlling the final set and held a 13-9 lead enroute to the victory. Jefferson and Cherif, who dropped their opening Rio match Saturday in two sets to Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson of the United States, are now tied with the Spaniards in Pool F and finish group play Wednesday against Austrians Alexander Huber and Robin Seidl. Gavira and Herrera, who defeated Huber and Seidl in three sets Saturday, will play the Americans Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Brazilian gold medal hopes Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas crushed Argentina in straight sets to qualify for the final 16, drawing on a lethal serve and the rapturous home crowd to seal an easy win.

A huge spike from Seixas sent the sand swirling on the first point and set the tone for a 21-11, 21-17 victory in just 40 minutes.

Argentina";s Ana Gallay and Georgina Klug fought hard in the second set, taking the lead early on. But a thunderous serve from Seixas to level at 9-9 shifted the momentum back in favour of the Brazilians.

Seixas followed up with a sequence of aces that brought the crowd to their feet. ‘";I am Brazilian, with much pride and much love,";"; they sang in full voice, with many waving the green and yellow national flag.

Another strong serve by Seixas finished the match. The Brazilian pair then waved kisses to the crowd before embracing fans in the front row and posing for selfies.

‘";We came into this game calmer... Barbara and I have played together for six years, there";s great chemistry between us and we always know where the other is,";"; Bednarczuk said after the match. ‘";We didn";t want to give them a chance.";";

Meanwhile in table tennis, Qatar";s Li Ping went down fighting to third seed Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany 4-3 ( 8-11, 11-4, 11-9, 7-11, 11-5, 9-11, 11-9) in a match which lasted for 52 minutes.

Elsewhere, Qatar";s Morad Zemouri lost to Dirk Van Tichelt of Belgium in the preliminary rounds of the men";s 73 kg elimination rounds.

In today";s action, Qatar will look to register their second successive in handball.

The 2015 World Championship runners-up will look to avenge their defeat to France in the final event in Doha.

The Al Anabi have been in consistent form and the crowning moment came last year when they stunned the world by reaching the final of World Handball Championship, only losing to France in the final. The Frenchmen are the only ones in history who have won back-to-back gold medals in Olympics with London Olympics gold.

Qatar";s recent success has made them favourites to secure a medal at least as many medal projections reveal and this exactly is what the team is targeting.

Qatar began their Rio 2016 campaign with a 30-23 win over Croatia.

Markovic emerged the top scorer for Qatar with 10 goals, followed by Rafael with six.

Qatar, coached by Valero Rivera from Spain, are part of Group A which consists of Tunisia, France, Denmark, Croatia and Argentina.

The match begins at 3.30pm Qatar time.The Peninsula