Nagoya, September 22, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
India’s women’s table tennis team fought back from 2-1 down to defeat Thailand 3-2 and book a place in the quarterfinals of the Asian Games 2026 on Tuesday.
India will face North Korea in the last-eight stage.
Yashaswini Ghorpade was instrumental in India’s comeback, securing two wins, while Sreeja Akula sealed the tie with a 3-1 (9-11, 11-6, 12-10, 11-8) victory over Thailand’s Olympian and Asian Games medallist Suthasini Sawettabut.
India have so far won three Asian Games table tennis medals, all bronze. The country’s first came at Jakarta 2018, when the men’s team won a historic bronze. Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra later added another bronze in mixed doubles.
At the 2023 Hangzhou Games, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee won bronze in women’s doubles, giving India its first Asian Games medal in the event.
Meanwhile, Chetan Bhatt narrowly missed out on a medal in men’s 84kg kumite after losing the bronze-medal bout to Chinese Taipei’s Chung Meng-yu via senshu.
The bout ended 1-1, with Meng-yu awarded the victory on senshu. Bhatt had earlier suffered an 8-0 defeat to Jordan’s Mohammad Alja’fari in the semifinal.
In swimming, India’s quartet of Rohit Benediction, Danush Suresh, Rishabh Das and Akash Mani clocked 3:40.41 in the men’s 4x100m medley relay heats. They finished seventh among 16 teams to qualify for the final later on Tuesday.
In soft tennis, Aadhya Tiwari lost her women’s singles Group D opener to Thailand’s Alisha Ziegler 4-1 (1-4, 4-0, 4-0, 4-2, 6-4). She will need to win her next match against Pakistan’s Kainaat Shallwani to remain in contention for qualification.
Jay Meena, meanwhile, defeated Pakistan’s Hussain Arain 4-0 (4-2, 4-0, 4-2, 4-0) in his only Group D men’s singles match to advance to the knockouts.
In sepaktakraw, India suffered a 0-2 (9-15, 12-15) defeat to Malaysia in their second Group B men’s team Regu match, leaving their qualification hopes hanging by a thread. India will face the Philippines in their final group match on Wednesday.
India have so far won six medals at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games — four silver and two bronze.
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