Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
The Indian women’s badminton team crashed out of the Asian Games 2026 after losing 1-3 to defending champions Japan. Playing in the quarter-finals at the Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium, India suffered a heartbreaking defeat despite putting up a brave fight against much higher-ranked opponents.
The loss extended India’s trophy-less run to 16 years in the Asian Games, with their last medal coming in the 2014 edition in Indonesia, where India shared the bronze medal with Japan.
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Asian Games Live: September 22 Updates
On Tuesday, September 22, India knew they were in for a tough gig against a heavily stacked Japanese side, who had multiple top-10 ranked players in their line-up.
With all the Indian shuttlers competing against higher-ranked opponents, the only chance India perhaps had was for veteran PV Sindhu to beat World No.3 Akane Yamaguchi in the opening match of the tie.
SINDHU vs YAMAGUCHI
The opening match of the quarter-final tie turned out to be a fascinating contest. Yamaguchi’s defence was tested again and again by Sindhu in the opening game.
Yamaguchi was able to pull into a 17-13 lead, 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 perhaps thought that her best chance of beating Yamaguchi was to finish things off in the second game itself, as the Japanese is well known for her defensive capabilities and court coverage.
Sindhu took a hyper-aggressive approach, coming hard at Yamaguchi at the net and smashing anything above her eye-line.
The method backfired, as Sindhu ended up conceding a lot of points through errors throughout the game. Sindhu lost the second game 18-21 in 23 minutes.
Things went downhill for Sindhu in the decider when she fell 6-14 behind. With no stamina left, errors crept into Sindhu’s game, and she lost the final game 11-21.
With India losing the opener, it was an uphill task for the rest of the Indian contingent.
TREESA/GAYATRI DEFIANT AS REST CRUMBLE
India went 2-0 down in the quarter-final tie when youngster Unnati Hooda lost to World No.7 Tomoka Miyazaki in straight games. Unnati would do well to reflect on the fact that she gave up an 11-4 lead in the second game, having already lost the first one 16-21.
Unnati did well in the first game to catch shuttles high on the net and force Miyazaki to dribble. But the clinical Miyazaki pulled ahead when she brought her deceptions into the game.
Unnati switched her game plan to smashing wide of the court, which worked briefly, but she was simply not at the level of Miyazaki on Tuesday.
With India 0-2 down, the quarter-final tie was more or less done, but World Championships bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand once again punched above their weight to beat the World No.3 pair of 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.
However, the brief hope did not last long as youngster Tanvi Sharma went down 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 An Se Young’s South Korea in the semi-final. South Korea beat Malaysia 3-1 in the quarter-finals to reach the final four.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
