The World Teqball Championships 2024 started with the men’s singles on Wednesday, and most of the medal hopefuls punched their tickets to the knockout phase before Mother Nature said ‘Stop’.

Finally, we are underway, even with a rain-shortened day! The 7th World Teqball Championships began on Wednesday, however, it did not take off as planned. Due to extreme weather conditions, such as rain showers and high humidity, most of the courts had to be repaired in the morning, therefore the start was delayed by 3,5 hours.

But at 1:30 PM local time, we got the green light, and the WTCH24 officially commenced with the men’s singles qualifiers.

Reigning world champion Adrian Duszak from Ploand won without playing because his opponent, Chedrac Alban Ahomadi, could not attend. Last year’s runner-up Apor Gyorgydeak played a much-anticipated game against 2023 doubles silver-medallist Matheus Ferraz (BRA), but the Romanian made it look easy against his opponent, showing that he was quickly able to recover from the 48-hour-long trip to Ho Chi Minh City. He then crushed Dimitar Pejchinovski (MKD) and secured the top spot in Group A.

Duszak, 3-time champion Adam Blazsovics (HUN), 2023 bronze-medallist Hugo Rabeux (FRA), 3-time doubles winner Nikola Mitro (SRB), Gor Sargsyan (ARM), Jonathan Coquelle (BEL), Boonkoom Tipwong (THA), Stoycho Zhekov (BUL), Ahmad Arabi (LBN), Baptiste Berna (POR), Jun Ming Zhan (CHN), Dmytro Shevchuk (UKR) also swept their respective groups, while Yassine Sahli (TUN) accomplished the tournament’s first comeback win against Lukas Flaks (CZE) to claim Group E. However, the only group of four, P got chaotic right off the bat and we will not know who will advance until Thursday.

As we were coming to the last matches of the group phase, Mother Nature intervened again as a steady and heavy rainfall hit the venue. Organizers decided that the remaining games will be postponed to Thursday morning at 10 AM.

So Day 2 will bring even more action as after the men’s singles Round of 32 and Round of 16, the doubles take the stage. Due to the postponement, the four other categories will be held without a group phase, which means FITEQ will conduct a re-draw for them because of contingency and sustainability measures and will be done in an elimination format. We do not have to mention that it will guarantee more excitement and drama.

Tune into TEQ TV on YouTube and you will not miss any action!