Kinga Barabasi/Apor Gyorgydeak from Romania will face their Gobek teammates, Polish Alicja Barnicka/Marek Pokwap after a highly exciting opening day that featured the mixed doubles.

The celebration has already begun in Budapest despite not handing out any medals on the first days. The Teqball World Series returned to the city where everything started and our beloved sport was born ten years ago, so it is fair to say that it is a special event. Not only because of the occasion, but it is the final stop of the elite series, also being the last major tournament before the World Championships.

The competition started with the mixed doubles on Thursday with a couple of nail-biters already in the group stage. Hungarians Zsofia Dezsenyi/Daniel Botond Varga upset Amelie Julian/Hugo Rabeux from France (who both won individual medals at the European Games in 2023) in two close sets to win Group D. The most dominant performance belonged to Romanians Kinga Barabasi/Apor Gyorgydeak who only conceded 17 points in three matches en route to secure Group E. Nora Vicsek/Matyas Odnoga were not far behind by allowing 19 points in Group H, just like 2023 WCh bronze medallists Krisztina Acs/Csaba Banyik (HUN) and Petra Pechy/Adam Blazsovics (HUN) with 25 and 26 points, respectively. EG bronze medallist Nanna Lind Kristensen (DEN) and 2023 world champ Adrian Duszak (POL) joined forces but barely survived the first phase after they lost to Gabriella Kota/Balazs Katz (HUN), luckily for them, they were able to close out Silvia Ferrer Garcia/Baptiste Berna (ESP/POR) in three sets to advance to the top 16.

The eighth finals brought an almost full sweep by the home units: five teams advanced out of eight (there was one full Hungarian matchup), but the number nearly grew to six as Dezsenyi/Varga took a 1-0 lead against Maja Umicevic/Arnold Szilagyi. However, the Serbian/Romanian duo equalized with a 12-10 set and completed the comeback with a 12-9, thus moving on to the Round of 8.

Their journey came to an end there in the hands of Kota/Katz, who managed to bounce them in straight sets. The quarterfinals turned out to be a dramatic round and the tensions got really high. Alicja Bartnicka/Marek Pokwap (POL) eliminated Acs/Banyik in two thrilling sets, Barabasi/Gyorgydeak knocked out newly reunited 2022 world champs Lea Vasas/Adam Bako, and Pechy/Blazsovics edged out Vicsek/Odnoga in three sets.

The semifinals were even more exciting and intensive. Yellow and red cards were shown, and everybody experienced the pressure of being one step away from the final. Bartnicka/Pokwap went back and forth against Kota/Katz and it was the Polish team that was able to stay focused at the end of both sets. Barabasi/Gyorgydeak and Pechy/Blazsovics also had an epic clash and won both sets by minimal margin.

That means no Hungarian teams made it to the final in the mixed doubles as a Romanian and a Polish unit will fight for the gold medal on Sunday. What a first day for Team Gobek, who swept the opening day in Budapest!

„I’m glad that we were able to end our day on a high note, we played very difficult matches today. We already won a tournament back in Tulsa but I think today we did even better. It is great that Gobek is improving and we will face our teammates here, but I really want to win a gold in Budapest” - said Apor Gyorgydeak at the end of Day 1.

Up next is the men’s doubles on Friday with plenty of world champions on the field. It should cause no problem for reigning champs Banyik/Katz to sweep Group A, the same could be said about three-time winner Nikola Mitro/Bogdan Marojevic in Group B. Group C is an interesting quartet with Gyorgydeak/Blazsovics facing Berna/Lionel Beyer (POR/FRA), while Group D features Bako/Odnoga, Stefan Orlowski/Szabolcs Ilyes (POL/ROU) and Frankie Diaz/Zoltan Szegedi (USA/HUN).

Group E also looks to be one that could bring a tight battle between Martin Csereklye/Barna Kovacsfi and the Kratochvil brothers, Petr and David. Group F is the three-headed monster with Bartlomiej Franczuk/Julien Grondin (POL/FRA), Zaid Eidan/Abdulwahab Alquattan (KUW) and Marko Zarkovic/Andrija Jovanovic (MNG). In Group G, Duszak (paired up with  Pokwap) is looking for revenge over Boldizsar Levik (with Benjamin Toth) after the latter eliminated him in singles in Beijing two weeks ago. Group F is almost impossible to predict with Jean Thierry Belus/Hugo Rabeux (FRA) Bence Forgacs/Soma Cseri (HUN), Rui Leitao/Daniel Neuhold (POR/AUT) and Abdulrahman Ahmed Radhi/Ali Jalil Mezher Alelayawi (IRQ) in it.

Follow the action live on TeqTV on YouTube!