Nagoya, Sep 19 (PTI) Quimcy Dsouza was within touching distance of the Asian Games final before the Indonesian comeback swept away her advantage, as the Indian went down to Sumaya in a gruelling three-game Teqball women’s singles semifinal here on Saturday.
For a while, the lanky 24-year-old from Mumbai seemed to have the contest firmly in her hands. She took the opening game 12-7, exploiting the curved table brilliantly with sliding serves and a barrage of sharp diagonal smashes, her footwork and body feints virtually immaculate.
But Sumaya had another weapon — sepak takraw muscle memory — and the Indonesian used it to turn the match on its head, winning the next two games 9-12, 12-7.
Quimcy’s medal dream, however, remains alive. She will play the bronze-medal playoff with a chance to turn a painful semifinal defeat into a podium finish. Teqball is being played for the first time at Asian Games.
The defeat was particularly hard to swallow after the Indian — who had previously competed in state-level football and 1,500m running and was introduced to Teqball after watching Brazilian football great Ronaldinho showcase his skills on Instagram — had made such a commanding start.
Using her height to full effect, Quimcy repeatedly found the angles with her smashes, while her low, sliding serves from the curved table kept Sumaya under pressure. She raced through the opening game 12-7 with little sign of the fightback that was to come. The second game was a different story.
Sumaya stepped up the intensity and matched Quimcy point for point, gradually forcing the Indian into longer rallies and making her work harder for every point. Quimcy varied her serving — using her knee when close to the table and her foot from farther away — in an attempt to keep the Indonesian guessing.
At 3-3, she began finding success with diagonal smashes from the right side and a sequence of such winners helped her make it 6-6. A well-judged header followed, but Sumaya refused to relent.
At 9-9, two deft drop shots from the Indonesian put Quimcy under pressure. The Indian then sent a smash wide and Sumaya had levelled the match.
The decider initially appeared to belong to Quimcy again.
She raced to a 3-0 lead with a combination of delicate drops and powerful smashes, and remained in front at 5-2. But Sumaya clawed her way back and the momentum shifted decisively after the change of ends at 6-3.
From there, the Indonesian reeled off nine consecutive points. Errors began creeping into Quimcy’s game as Sumaya tightened her grip on the contest, while the Indian repeatedly tried to lift herself with clenched fists.
Quimcy was left to rue a match that had begun so promisingly.
“Yes, she had an advantage because of her sepak takraw background, but it was a good game where the better player won,” said a tearful Quimcy after the match.
The Indian’s journey to the Asian Games podium, though, has been anything but conventional.
A former state-level footballer who also competed in the 1,500m, Quimcy discovered Teqball only four years ago after watching Ronaldinho showcase the sport on Instagram.
She took to it almost immediately and, despite having no coach or financial support, has managed to establish herself on the Asian stage.
Now based in Bengaluru and working as a test engineer in Decathlon, Quimcy has packed remarkable progress into those four years — and she still has one more match to complete the journey, and possibly win a bronze medal.
Teqball, a fast-paced blend of football and table tennis, is played on a specially curved table with a standard size-5 football. Players can use their feet, knees, thighs, chest and head to return the ball, but hands and arms are prohibited.
Each side gets a maximum of three touches to send the ball over the net, while the same body part cannot be used twice in succession.
The sport shares some similarities with sepak takraw, making Sumaya’s background particularly valuable in a contest where touch, balance, timing and improvisation can change the momentum in an instant. PTI AM AM BS BS
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