22 May 2023

Rabeux/Julian’s major upset in LA

Eventful Teqball Tour in LA as the crowd saw a historical win, a major upset and a victory at first appearance.

The second event of the back-to-back Teqball Tour brought Banyik’s historical win, Pechy’s victory at her first appearance while Rabeux/Julian outplayed their higher-ranked opponents confidently in the final.

69 athletes from 15 countries competed in Venice Beach, Los Angeles in three categories.

Women’s doubles

As the last tournament’s winners, the Brazilian duo Vania Moraes da Cruz & Ester Viana Mendes did not participate in California, new queens were named. Although this category’s World Ranking third Margaret Osmundson and fourth, current women’s singles title holder Carolyn Greco lost one battle in the group stage and finished surprisingly second, they geared up in the knockout rounds and reached the final while beating the present world champions of women’s doubles, Lea Vasas & Zsanett Janicsek.

Their challenger is a debutant twosome as Petra Pechy and Kinga Barabasi never fought alongside before. On the road to the final, they only lost one set although it was against Greco/Osmundson in the group stage.

Pechy and Barabasi started with precise attacks while Team USA was very slow, however with speeding up and tougher defence, Greco/Osmundson came back and equalized at 9-9. Finally, with the second ace from Barabasi, the Hungarian, Romanian duo won the beginning set.

The second period continued with longer rallies and the Europeans due to seven unforced errors lost.

A head-to-head battle built up in the final set thanks to multiple great saves from the home unit. The Americans developed a two-point lead but with the 23 years old Hungarian’s smashes, the white-shirted side came back and took the lead. Time-out from Greco/Osmundson did not stop the pair from overseas to take the throne of Los Angeles.

„At my debuting event in the US as well as my first competition with Kinga, I did not expect to win, however, the crowd and the vibe helped to go through the tougher moments.” – said Pechy who gathered her second gold in her career.

Greco/Osmundson – Pechy/Barabasi 1:2 (-11,-9,8-)

For the bronze medal, Vasas/Janicsek triumphed over Julian/Gomez I Vila in three sets.

Mixed doubles

The fantastic French, Hugo Rabeux and Amelia Julian started the Teqball Tour in Los Angeles top seeded, thus they only joined the competition in the knockout stage and advanced to the golden match confidently.

Csaba Banyik & Zsanett Janicsek conquered the World in 2021 in mixed doubles and although in this season they only teamed up once, in Dubai and finished fifth this time nobody got close until their last match.

The French side jumped out in the first set and quickly developed a three-point lead and the Hungarians seemed to be out of sync. Although the world champions saved four set balls, Rabeux and Julian took the lead.

The Middle Europeans changed the pace, but the teqers from AS Monaco did not back down and with Banyik’s double fault, one of the tournament’s biggest upsets happened in the final.

“It was a perfect day for playing Teqball” – started Rabeux who triumphed back-to-back as he won the trophy in Miami in men’s doubles. “We were energized to be in the final against Banyik & Janicsek, and this spirit kept us above the water.”

Banyik/Janicsek -  Rabeux/Julian 0:2 (7-,8-)

Vasas finished with two bronze medals as along with Katz they won against Osmundson/Pilic.

Men’s doubles

Banyik was preparing for his tenth consecutive triumph in men’s doubles with his fellow teqer, Balazs Katz. The streak started in August last year exactly in Los Angeles. Without a single loss set, they created the chance to write history.

Matyas Odnoga & Bartlomiej Franczuk awaited them in the final even though they lost the third game in the group stage against Blazsovics/Csereklye.

Nothing came together for Banyik in the previous final, but with Katz next to him, this match was completely different as they started with eight consecutive points when Odnoga stopped them with a huge smash, however, it was only a beauty patch on the score.

When it rains, it pours as the same scenario happened in the following period. Although, this time the challengers started to catch up earlier thanks to powerful attacks, the ship has already sailed and Banyik/Katz celebrated their 10th consecutive win.

Banyik/Katz – Odnoga/Franczuk 2:0 (-3,-6)

Four-time world champion Blazsovics returned home with one medal after the Columbian pair, Bello/Oviedo Amortegui did not stop the record champion and his partner Csereklye. 

The next Teqball event will return to Los Angeles, California, United States of America between 9 & 11 June.

Every result of Teqball Tour Los Angeles can be found here.

For more pictures, visit our Flickr site.