Asian Games 2026: In what has been an inglorious record for India, the campaign is over already at the Asian Games 2026 in tennis, having failed to win a single medal.
Sumit Nagal’s loss to China’s Wu Yibing in the quarterfinals on Thursday confirmed that the record books will show India outside the medals in lawn tennis for the first time in four decades.
India’s First Medal-Less Asian Games Tennis Campaign Since 1986
Nagal, the country’s top men’s singles player at the Asian Games, was the last hope for the singles draw for the country. Unfortunately, he lost to Wu 4-6, 4-6 in just an hour and 38 minutes in the quarterfinals.
The loss also signaled the end of all of India’s tennis efforts in the Asian Games, by going home with 0 medals. The last time India had no tennis medals in the Asian Games was 1986 in Seoul.
India had achieved an amazing consistency in tennis performances across that run at the continental event ever since. It managed a tennis podium at every event between 1990 and 2022, apart from 2026.
What Happened to India’s Tennis Contingent in 2026?
India left for the tournament with the hope of extending their medal streak, despite several changes to the team from the previous edition:
During the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, India secured two tennis medals. Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale got a gold medal in mixed doubles, while Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan got a silver medal in men’s doubles.
The 2026 group had Nagal and some others, who had played in singles and mixed or doubles. Nagal had a good few rounds and beat South Korea’s Hong Seong-chan 6-4, 6-0 and got to the round of 16 and then the quarterfinals.
Yuki Bhambri and Dhakshineswar Suresh also reached the men’s doubles quarter-finals in India by defeating Kazakhstan’s Denis Yevseyev and Beibit Zhukayev 6-1, 7-5. But the duo failed to continue their winning streak into the medal stages.
Nagal’s QFloss was the conclusion of India’s now 40-year-tennis-Zero-Asian Games-medal-hoodoo, as the country finally failed to win a tennis medal at Aichi-Nagoya, ending a spell that dated as far back as 1986 in Seoul, where India too had finished without any medals.