The Indian tennis contingent will return home without an Asian Games medal for the first time since 1986. Sumit Nagal was the last medal hope remaining for India; however, he suffered a straight-sets defeat to China’s Wu Yibing in the men’s singles quarterfinals. Sumit lost 4-6, 4-6 to Yibing in an hour and 38 minutes, bringing India’s tennis campaign to an end.
Earlier, the pair of N Sriram Balaji and Anirudh Chandrasekar had suffered a heartbreaking defeat in the men’s doubles quarterfinals, going down 7-6(4), 6-7(7), 8-10 to China’s Fumin Chiang and Tianhui Ziang. Yuki Bhambri and Dhakshineswar Suresh also bowed out in the men’s doubles quarterfinals after losing 6-7(5), 3-6 to Chinese Taipei’s Yu-Hsiou Hsu and Chenjui Ho. Bhambri’s campaign ended completely later in the day when he and Rutuja Bhosale were beaten 3-6, 4-6 by Chinese Taipei’s Su-Wei Hsieh and Chun-Hsion Tseng in the mixed doubles quarterfinals. Earlier, Dhakshineswar had also been knocked out of the men’s singles, losing 3-6, 4-6 to sixth seed Chun-Hsin Tseng of Chinese Taipei in the third round.
SAI’s Move Backfired?
Ahead of the Asian Games, India made changes to its tennis squad after the Sports Ministry trimmed the original 12-member list proposed by the All India Tennis Association (AITA) to seven players. The final squad included only Ankita Raina and Rutuja Bhosale among the women, while leading women’s singles players Sahaja Yamalapalli, Vaishnavi Adkar and Vaidehee Chaudhari were left out. Men’s singles prospect Manas Dhamne was also omitted from the final squad.
The Sports Ministry’s decision was based on its medal-potential criteria for multi-sport events, which uses recent performances and rankings as benchmarks for individual events. The move had left Rohan Bopanna upset.
“Five players, including India’s No. 1 and No. 2 in women’s singles, earned their rankings the hard way. No shortcuts. No favours. They competed internationally, qualified and proved where they stand,” Bopanna wrote on LinkedIn.
“Now a committee that never stood where they stood has decided their fate on paper, before a ball is struck.
“If outcomes are already decided, why have qualification at all? Why rankings?
“This isn’t just a call about five athletes. It’s a message to every parent, every sponsor who backed them before the country did, who bet on merit and results, not on being pre-approved.
“Telling these players they’re ‘not medal prospects’ tells every one of those parents and sponsors: your judgment doesn’t matter here.”