At the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, two sports that most Indian audiences have never heard of have quietly produced some of the country’s most encouraging performances: Teqball and Soft Tennis. Neither sport has any real television history in India, which is exactly why the results are catching people off guard.
Every Asian Games brings sports that many Indian fans may not have watched before. This time, one of the biggest examples is Teqball a sport making its Asian Games debut in Aichi-Nagoya 2026. Alongside it, Soft Tennis, a sport that has been part of the Asian Games since 1994, is also getting more attention in India.
So, what exactly are these sports?
Teqball is a combination of football and table tennis, played on a curved table. Players cannot use their hands or arms and can use their head, chest and legs to return the ball. In singles and doubles, a team gets a maximum of three touches before returning the ball. A match is played best-of-three sets, with each set going to 12 points. In doubles, teammates must also pass the ball to each other during their three-touch sequence.
Teqball was invented in Hungary in 2014, and Aichi-Nagoya 2026 is the first time it has appeared as a medal sport at the Asian Games. It made its Asian Games debut only this year after being added to the program in February 2026, which means every nation, India included, is competing in it for the first time at this level.
Then there is Soft Tennis. It may look familiar because it is similar to regular tennis, but the biggest difference is the equipment: players use a much softer, lightweight rubber ball and a lighter racket. The court is the same size as a regular tennis court, while scoring follows a game-and-set format. Soft Tennis actually has a much longer Asian Games history. It was introduced as an exhibition sport in Beijing in 1990 and became an official medal sport at Hiroshima 1994. So, unlike Teqball, this is not India’s first Asian Games appearance in Soft Tennis.
What stands out in Aichi-Nagoya is that Indian athletes are not simply entering these less familiar sports and disappearing in the early rounds. India’s Teqball and Men’s Soft Tennis teams have already shown that they can compete and create moments worth watching.
Neither result is a guaranteed medal yet. But for two sports with almost no visibility in India outside a small competitive circle, reaching the knockout stages at a Games this size is a genuine marker of progress worth watching through to the finish.