Spring is here, and so is the Teqball World Series in the 'City of Springs', Jinan! Last year’s edition was a worldwide success that ended where it all began more than a decade ago – Budapest, Hungary. In 2025, the sport’s highest series of competition kicks off, where the sport itself took a huge step forward: China.

In 2024, we celebrated the establishment of the International Teqball Research Center in Beijing, so it is only fitting to go back to the country where not only is the popularity on the rise, but FITEQ also has a scientific background.

The destination is Jinan, a city of 9 million located a mere 400 kilometres south of Beijing. 74 athletes from 18 nations will compete in three categories for a total of 30,000 dollars and precious FITEQ World Rankings points. The event starts with the qualifiers of the mixed doubles and women’s singles on Friday, followed by the qualifiers of the men’s singles on Saturday, then on Sunday, 9 games will be played – the semifinals and the finals in each category.

24 players will face off in the women’s singles, including world champions, European champions and many medallists from previous competitions.

We have to start with the Thai Jutatip Kuntatong, who earned two gold medals at the World Teqball Championships 2024 in Ho Chi Minh City, with one of them coming in singles after a successful rematch of the WTCH 2023 final versus Rafaella Fontes (BRA). She is the undisputed 'Queen of Teqball', but there are a lot of challengers who want to dethrone her. One of them could be her countrywoman, Suphawadi Wongkhamchan, the 4-time and co-record world champion who is more used to the doubles as she will compete in singles for the first time ever, but nobody should underestimate her skills in this category. Then there is Hungarian Anna Izsak, who became singles’ world champ in 2021 and already got herself a medal in 2025 after finishing second in Pecs at the first stop of the Challenger Teqball League. She lost that final to Kinga Barabasi (ROU), who will also show up in Jinan and is a multiple WTCH bronze medalist, not to mention her singles European champs title from 2023. Frenchwoman Amelie Julian has collected a few medals in 2025 after ending 2024 with a bronze in Vietnam, similar to Denmark’s Mira Faeno Dahlmann, who will also be present in Jinan. Furthermore, China will be represented by nine players in this event alone!

Believe it or not, the men’s singles category seems even more stacked. Romanian Apor Gyorgydeak, who remained undefeated in 2024 and won everything in singles, including the world championship, is going to be the man to beat in Jinan. He will be heavily tested as the field includes WCTC 2024 silver medalist and three-time world champion (in doubles) Nikola Mitro (SRB), four-time world gold medalist Adam Blazsovics (HUN), the Polish prodigy Marek Pokwap, who already has 5 golds under his belt from 2025, 2023 African Beach Games champion Yassine Sahli (TUN), 2023 doubles world champ Balazs Katz (HUN), Gobek Teqball Team president Szabolcs Ilyes (ROU), and the incredibly powerful Thai contingent with Jirati Chanliang, Uthen Kukheaw, Phakpong Dejaroen, Pornthep Wapisiri, Sorrasak Thaosiri and Chayawut Dosa. The home crowd will not get bored as they will be able to root for 18 Chinese players.

In the mixed doubles, many of the aforementioned world-class players will join forces. Back-to-back world champions Wongkhamchan/Dejaroen lead the field and can be considered as favourites, but fellow Thais Kuntatong/Chanliang, Wantika Innu/Wapisiri, and Areeya Homdee/Thaosiri set their sights on the gold, as well. Gobek teammates Viorica Tonu/Pokwap (MDA/POL) would like to make it to the podium, too, which does not seem to be an easy task as WTCH 2024 bronze medallists Barabasi/Gyorgydeak (ROU), Julian/Mitro (FRA/SRB), Dahlmann/Katz (DEN/HUN), Zsofia Dezsenyi/Blazsovics (HUN), and Izsak/Arpad Sipos (HUN) are also medal hopefuls. And who knows, could this be the category where one of the 6 Chinese units pulls off an upset?

The qualification stages will be held at the Shandong Sports University, and for the finals, the competition will move to the Sunac Mao Plaza.

Do not miss the first TWS event and follow the action live on TeqTV on YouTube!