Nagoya: India's Quimcy Joaquim Dsouza is just a win away from securing a historic medal for the country in Teqball after marching into the women's singles semifinals at the Asian Games here on Friday.
Making her Asian Games debut, Quimcy stunned top-seeded Yuina Sakamoto of Japan 2-1 (10-12 12-11 13-11) in her opening Group A match that lasted 43 minutes at the Nagoya City Higashi Sports Center.
The young Indian carried the momentum into her second group match and defeated Cambodia's Koemyean DY 2-0 (12-9 12-7) in 24 minutes to top her group and qualify for the semifinals.
Also read: Top Olympic official wants even bigger Asian Games
Quimcy got a bye in the quarterfinals by virtue of topping her group.
She will take on Indonesia's Sumaya in the semifinals on Saturday and a win will ensure the first-ever medal for India in Teqball, one of the six sports making its debut at the continental showpiece.
If the 24-year-old Indian loses in the last four match, she will have another shot at a medal through the bronze medal play-off tie.
Teqball is one of the six sports alongside Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Padel, Surfing, BMX Freestyle and Virtual Taekwondo which are making their debut in the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
Teqball is a dynamic sport, a combination of football and table tennis. The game was invented by football enthusiasts Gabor Borsanyi, Gyorgy Gattyan, and Viktor Huszar in Hungary in 2014.
The first official Teqball World Championships was held in Budapest in 2017.
In Teqball, players use almost every part of their body except hands and arms to rally with a standard size five football across a curved table, divided by a transparent plexiglass.
