Asian Games: India’s medal wait extended to 16 years after women’s team crash vs. Japan
The Indian women’s badminton team crashed out of the 2026 Asian Games after losing 1-3 to defending champions Japan. Playing in the quarter-finals at Ichinomiya City Grammar School, India suffered a heartbreaking defeat despite fighting bravely against much higher-ranked opponents.
The loss extended India’s trophy-less run to 16 years at the Asian Games, with their last medal coming in 2014 in Indonesia, where India shared the bronze medal with Japan.
Asian Games Live: September 22 update
On Tuesday, September 22, India knew they were in for a tough gig against a heavily stacked Japanese side that had several top 10 players in their line-up.
With all of India’s shuttlers competing against higher-ranked opponents, the only chance India perhaps had was veteran PV Sindhu defeating world No.3 Akane Yamaguchi in the opening match of the tie.
SINDHU vs YAMAGUCHI
The opening match of the quarter final turned out to be a fascinating match. Yamaguchi’s defense was tested again and again by Sindhu in the opening game.
Yamaguchi was able to pull back to lead 17-13 but a resilient Sindhu came from behind to win the opening game 23-21.
The opening game lasted 26 minutes and took a lot out of the Indian shuttler.
Sindhu may have thought her best chance to beat Yamaguchi was to finish things off in the second game alone, as the Japanese is well known for her defensive skills and court coverage.
Sindhu took a hyper-aggressive approach, pouncing hard on Yamaguchi at the net and smashing anything above her eye line.
This method backfired as Sindhu ended up winning a lot of points due to errors throughout the game. Sindhu lost the second game 18-21 in 23 minutes.
It was all downhill for Sindhu in the decider as she fell at 6-14. With no stamina left, errors crept into Sindhu’s game and she lost the final game 11-21.
With India having lost the opener, it was a tough task for the rest of the Indian contingent.
TREESA/GAYATRI DEFIANT AS REST CRUMBLE
India lost 2-0 in the quarter-finals when youngster Unnati Hooda lost to world No. 7 Tomoka Miyazaki in straight games. Unnati would do well to reflect on the fact that they gave up an 11-4 lead in the second game after losing the first 16-21.
Unnati thrived in the first game, catching shuttlers high on the net and forcing Miyazaki to dribble. But the clinical Miyazaki pulled ahead as she brought her shenanigans into play.
Unnati changed her game plan to smashing from all sides of the court, which worked briefly, but she just wasn’t on Miyazaki’s level on Tuesday.
With India trailing 0-2, the quarter-final tie was more or less a done deal, but World Championship bronze medalists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand again punched above their weight to defeat the pair of World No. 3 Yuki Fukushima and Mayu Matsumoto in straight games.
Treesa/Gayatri won 21-17, 21-16 in less than an hour, proving that their career graph was on an upward trajectory.
But the brief hope was short-lived as youngster Tanvi Sharma lost 12-21, 10-21 to former world champion Nozomi Okuhara in the third and final singles match of the tie.
The defending champions will now face South Korea’s An Se Young in the semi-finals. South Korea defeated Malaysia 3-1 in the quarter-finals to reach the final.
– The end
Issued by:
Kingshuk Kusari
Published on:
22 Sep 2026 11:38 IST