In Group B of the mixed doubles event, Minh Tam and Gia Nghi had to compete with 5 other pairs. Among these, Japan and Korea are considered formidable opponents.
The host athlete pair includes Sakamoto Yuina - who won a bronze medal at the world championship and a bronze medal at the 2025 World Tours. Meanwhile, Wase Akinori won the 2025 World Tour and defeated Ba Truong Giang in the men's singles recently.
Accordingly, Minh Tam and Gia Nghi started with a 2-0 victory over Japan with scores of 12-11 and 12-7. In the match against Korea, the Vietnamese duo continued to win 2-1 after three sets with scores of 12-10, 11-12 and 13-11.
The match against Iraq was the only defeat of Minh Tam and Gia Nghi in the group stage. Vietnam lost narrowly 11-12 in the first set, before letting the opponent win the overall victory.
After that, they completed the group stage with two wins against Laos and Kyrgyzstan to finish second in the group, thereby winning the right to enter the quarterfinals.
In this round, the Vietnamese representative met Dsouza Quimcy Joachim and Beg Mohamed Anas Imran of India. Minh Tam and Gia Nghi controlled the match well, winning 12-7 and 12-10 respectively to close the quarter-finals with a score of 2-0.
This is a remarkable result as Vietnam's female opponent once won the World Tour, and the male athlete has participated in the world championship many times. However, Minh Tam and Gia Nghi still maintained their ability to coordinate, handle the ball and focus in decisive moments.
The Vietnamese pair will enter the teqball semi-finals on September 19. This is also an opportunity for Minh Tam and Gia Nghi to continue to compete for medals in the mixed doubles teqball event.
