Nagoya, October 1, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
India’s tennis campaign at the Asian Games ended without a medal for the first time since 1986 after Sumit Nagal suffered a straight-set defeat to China’s Wu Yibing in the men’s singles quarterfinals here on Thursday.
Nagal went down 4-6, 4-6 at the Higashiyama Park Tennis Center, bringing an end to India’s hopes of securing a podium finish in tennis at the continental showpiece.
The defeat also denied Nagal an opportunity to avenge his loss to Wu at the ATP Masters 1000 Shanghai tournament, where the Indian had suffered a round-of-128 exit.
Nagal struggled to make the most of his service games, landing 66 per cent of his first serves in. He won 62 per cent of points on his first serve and 59 per cent on his second but was broken three times during the match.
Earlier, Suresh Dhakshineswar had been knocked out in the men’s singles round of 16 following a 6-3, 6-4 defeat to Chinese Taipei’s Tseng Chun-hsin.
India also failed to win a men’s doubles medal for the first time since the 1998 Asian Games. The pairs of Yuki Bhambri-Dhakshineswar Suresh and Anirudh Chandrasekar-N Sriram Balaji both suffered quarterfinal defeats.
Bhambri and Suresh lost to Chinese Taipei’s Ray Ho and Hsu Yu-hsiou, while Balaji and Anirudh were beaten by China’s Jiang Fumin and Zhang Tianhui in a closely fought tie-breaker.
In women’s doubles, Ankita Raina and Rutuja Bhosale exited in the opening round after losing to Kazakhstan’s Anna Danilina and Yuliya Putintseva.
India’s mixed doubles campaign also ended without a medal. Bhambri and Rutuja lost to Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Su-wei and Tseng Chun-hsin in the round of 16, while Balaji and Ankita were eliminated by Hong Kong, China’s Eudice Chong and Kairan Thompson in the round of 32.
India had won two tennis medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023. Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale won gold in mixed doubles, while Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni claimed silver in men’s doubles.
India have won 34 Asian Games tennis medals, including 10 gold.
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