The Russians head into the Katara Beach Volleyball Cup as favourites, but had to work hard in their second set to defeat Dutch duo, Steven van de Velde and Christiaan Varenhorst by a score of 21-19, 28-26.

The world champions will play Mexican pair Josue Gaston Gaxiola and Jose Luis Rubio in the next round who won a tiebreaker against Americans Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb.

Trevor Crabb's brother Taylor Crabb fared better progressing with partner Jacob Gibb after winning two tight sets 21-19, 21-18 against Russia's Ilya Leshukov and Konstantin Semenov. 

Crabb and Gibb play Italians Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo in the quarters after they knocked out fourth seeds Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of The Netherlands 21-19, 21-16.

World number four pair Evandro and Bruno Schmidt ended the run of Chilean cousins Marco and Esteban Grimalt, winning 26-24, 21-17 and will now play Americans Nicholas Lucena and Philip Dalhausser who defeated Austria's Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller 21-16, 21-9.

In the final two matches of the day, Polish pair Michael Bryl and Grzegorz Fijalek took three sets to beat Latvia's Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins in an 18-21, 29-27, 15-12 win and will now play Germany's Nils Ehlers and Lars Flüggen after their 21-14, 26-24 win over Canadian pair Sam Pedlow and Sam Schachter.