Asian Games: No medal, but Quimcy Dsouza’s fight puts teqball on India’s map

India suffered a teqball heartbreak at the Asian Games on Sunday morning. Two bronze medals were within reach, one in women’s singles and the other in mixed doubles, but both slipped away as India finished fourth in both events.

For Quimcy Dsouza, the morning started with a narrow defeat that was hard to bear.

In the singles bronze medal match, Quimcy faced Japan’s World No. 7 Yuina Sakamoto. The score read 12-11, 12-11 in favor of Sakamoto, but it barely captured the drama unfolding in the bustling Nagoya Higashi Sports Center.

Quimcy didn’t get off to a strong start. Sakamoto raced to a 5-1 lead in the opening stages, putting the Indian on the back foot almost immediately.

But Quimcy began to look for her points of view.

Her smashes didn’t have overwhelming power, but she constantly found uncomfortable spots on the table, forcing Sakamoto to stretch and making it difficult for the Japanese star to control rallies. Point after point, Quimcy chipped away at the deficit.

She pulled level at 11-11.

It was the kind of comeback that could disrupt Sakamoto’s rhythm. Instead, the Japanese player held her nerve and won the opening set 12-11.

For Quimcy, however, the return changed the mood of the competition. She carried it into the second set and created her own lead. At 10-9, she was one point away from taking the match to a deciding set.

Then Sakamoto changed the contest again.

Her feather touches were more accurate and her defenses more waterproof. Having spent much of the set dictating exchanges, Quimcy suddenly found herself drawn into a different kind of battle. Sakamoto clawed her way back to close out the second set 12-11.

Quimcy’s defeat stunned.

After the last point, she sat on her back, visibly shaken and almost in tears. The bronze medal was there for a touch, only to disappear after two sets decided by the narrowest possible margin.

But there was no time to sit around. Quimcy had another bronze match ahead of him.

INDIA LOSES TO VIETNAM IN MIXED DOUBLES

This time she returned to the court alongside Mohammed Anas Beg in the mixed doubles against Vietnam’s Tan Ngyuen and Gia Trinh. And it was clear almost immediately that this was going to be a different kind of fight.

Quimcy and Beg struggled from the start, losing the opening set 12:9. But a bigger problem was developing on Quimcy’s side of the table.

Her back was bothering her, forcing her to undergo treatment from a physiotherapist during the break. The situation worsened only in the second set.

Quimcy could no longer raise her right leg properly to perform the smashes. Beg, meanwhile, struggled with nerves and lost control of the ball at crucial moments. The Vietnamese pair took advantage of this and pulled away further.

In the end, India were forced to call a time-out, which was later converted into an injury time-out.

Quimcy was barely standing.

For 10 to 15 minutes, the physical therapist worked on her as she grimaced during the treatment. When she finally returned to the court, she was able to get back into position.

By then the medal was effectively gone.

India might have lost the match but refused to fade away. Quimcy finished with Beg at her side. India lost the second set 12-6 and with it another bronze medal.

INDIA INTRODUCES ITSELF WITH TEQBALL

On her debut at the Asian Games, India would fail to win any medals in teqball.

But Quimcy Dsouza gave the sport an unforgettable introduction in Nagoya. She nearly broke down in tears after narrowly losing the women’s singles bronze medal match and returned to the court minutes later for another medal match, this time in the mixed doubles, despite struggling with a back injury.

India finished fourth in both events, but Quimcy’s performances put one of the country’s lesser-known sports in the limelight on its debut at the Asian Games. Medals will have to wait for Indian teqball. But Quimcy Dsouza gave the sport a name to remember.

WHO IS QUIMCY DSOUZA?

Quimcy Dsouza is a 24-year-old teqball player from Mumbai who has become one of India’s leading names in the sport. However, her path to teqball was far from conventional. She started her sporting journey in athletics, representing Maharashtra before moving to under-19 football for the state.

Dsouza started teqball in 2022 and quickly turned the transition into a serious competitive career. She has since become a seven-time national champion and founded the Teqball Club of Bangalore, contributing to the development of the sport in India.

She also built a career outside of sports, working as a test engineer at Decathlon in Bengaluru. On the international circuit, Dsouza achieved a career-high world ranking of 24th and finished ninth at the 2026 World Championships in Romania.

Her rise has come as teqball continues to gain a foothold in India and internationally. With her background in athletics and football before taking up teqball, Dsouza has become one of the faces of the sport for India.

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Issued by:

Kingshuk Kusari

Published on:

20 Sep 2026 08:59 IST