On 16 January, San Diego played host to the first USA Teqball Tour event. The new event series will see 12 tournaments hosted across the US in 2022, featuring the world’s leading players.

The San Diego leg was a beach teqball event, with teqers competing in men’s and women’s doubles. In the men’s doubles, former world champions Adam Blazsovics and Csaba Banyik entered as firm favourites and their flawless group stage record reinforced the expectation on the Hungarian stars. However, the in-form French duo of Hugo Rabeux and Julien Grondin showed early signs of their ambition after comfortably defeating home favourites Dennis Correia and Luka Pilic 2-0 (12-4, 12-5).

In a hotly anticipated semi-final showdown between Blazsovics/Banyik and Rabeux/Grondin, the French team came out firing to take the first set 12-6. However, the Hungarians demonstrated both skill and tenacity to win a tight second set 12-11. It was not to be for the former world champions though, with Rabeux and Grondin progressing to the final with a highly impressive 12-7 deciding set victory. In the gold medal match, they faced the Polish/Hungarian team of Bartlomiej Franczuk and Martin Csereklye. Another close three-set encounter this time saw the French pair come from behind to win 2-1 (11-12, 12-8, 12-8) and leave San Diego as champions. Blazsovics and Banyik bounced back from the semi-final disappointment to take bronze.

In the women’s doubles, all eyes were on US star and silver medallist in the inaugural World Championships women’s doubles category, Margaret Osmundson, who was competing in San Diego with partner Ana Moriconi Schardong from Brazil. The pair topped their group in dominant fashion, including a straight sets victory over mixed doubles champion at the 2021 Teqball World Championships, Zsanett Janicsek, and her Hungarian compatriot Zsofia Anna Blazsovics-Petri. The two teams met once again in the semi-finals and this time the Hungarians got revenge, with a thrilling 2-1 (10-12, 12-10, 12-9) victory. Facing the US duo of Kareli Rodriguez and Mia Valente in the final, the Hungarians continued their knockout stage form to claim gold with a relatively comfortable 2-0 (12-8, 12-5) win. Osmundson and Moriconi Schardong recovered to win bronze in the third-place play off.

The event was held at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center, which is an US Olympic and Paralympic (USOPC) training site and was home to 203 Olympic and Paralympic athletes prior to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Action was streamed live on ESPN in the US, as part of a new year-long programming agreement to showcase the USA Teqball Tour on the leading international sports platform.

ALL INFORMATION & RESULTS of the USA Teqball Tour - San Diego - HERE