Tennis Wrap: Sumit Nagal advances to quarters, India's doubles campaign over at Asian Games 2026

For the first time since 1990, India will return without a doubles medal

India’s tennis campaign took a heavy hit on Wednesday at Asian Games 2026, with every entry in the draw eliminated except Sumit Nagal.

What had looked like a promising spread across four categories after two rounds turned into a day of exits in singles, both men’s doubles pairs, and mixed doubles, leaving Nagal as the sole Indian left bearing the weight and expectations of the entire nation for a medal in tennis.

Also Read: Asian Games 2026: India’s updated schedule for Day 12 (October 1)

Singles: Sumit Nagal marches on, DK Suresh bows out

Sumit Nagal kept his run going with a straightforward 6-3, 6-2 win over Uzbekistan’s Sergey Fomin in the men’s singles third round, dropping just five games across the match to book his place in the next round.

Nagal will next take on third seed Wu Yibing in the quarter-final. The Chinese reached the third round of US Open 2026 recently and could present a massive challenge for the Indian.

It was a different story for Dhakshineswar Suresh, whose singles campaign came to an end against Chinese Taipei’s Chun-Hsin Tseng. Suresh lost the opening set 3-6, then pushed harder in the second before going down 4-6, unable to convert the chances that came his way.

Men’s doubles heartbreak: Both Indian pairs eliminated in the quarter-finals

The day’s biggest disappointment for India came from the men’s doubles contingent, where the country had entered with real medal hopes behind two seeded pairs.

Fifth seeds Yuki Bhambri and Dhakshineswar Suresh lost to Chinese Taipei’s Chenjui Ho and Yu-Hsiou Hsu, going down 7-6(5), 6-3 after failing to convert their own set point in the opening set tiebreak.

Top seeds Anirudh Chandrasekar and N Sriram Balaji fared even worse in heartbreak terms. They took the first set 7-6(4) against China’s Fumin Jiang and Tianhui Zhang, only to lose the second set in another tiebreak, 7-6(9), that swung the match into a deciding match tiebreak.

Also Read: India’s 24-year Asian Games tennis streak ends after disappointing doubles campaign in Aichi-Nagoya

India led for stretches of that breaker too, but Jiang and Zhang closed it out 10-8, ending the top seeds’ campaign in the quarter-finals. Both these results dashed hopes of a realistic gold in the discipline.

Mixed doubles: Bhosale and Bhambri also fall

There was no respite in mixed doubles either. Second seeds Rutuja Bhosale and Yuki Bhambri lost their second-round match to Chinese Taipei’s Su-Wei Hsieh and Chun-Hsin Tseng, going down 6-3, 6-4.

It capped a rough few days for that event specifically, after Ankita Raina and N Sriram Balaji had already been knocked out the previous day, and Raina’s women’s doubles pairing with Bhosale had also lost earlier in the week.

With every other Indian in the draw now out, the country’s tennis medal hopes rest entirely on Sumit Nagal’s shoulders heading into the remaining rounds.

With Nagal himself coming on the back of modest form, it appears highly likely that India will return from the Asian Games without a medal in tennis for the first time since 1958.

India’s tennis results on September 30 at Asian Games 2026

• XD: Yuki Bhaambri/Rutuja Bhosale lost to Chun-hsin Tseng/Su-wei Hsieh (3-6, 4-6)
• MD: Yuki Bhambri/DK Suresh lost to Chenjui Ho/Yu-hsiou Hseu (6-7(5), 3-6)
• MS: DK Suresh lost to Chun-hsin Tseng (3-6, 4-6)
• MS: Sumit Nagal beat Sergey Fomin (6-3, 6-2)
• MD: N Sriram Balaji/Anirudh Chandrasekar lost to Fumin Jiang/Tianhui Zhang (7-6(4), 6-7(7), [8-10])

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