Sportstar·India·Sunday, September 27, 2026 at 05:51 AM

Asian Games 2026: Sindhu, Unnati lose in badminton quarterfinals; Indian medal hopes over in individual events

Translate

Team Sportstar

Indian youngster Unnati Hooda (in pic) gave a good account of herself as she fought hard in a three-game loss to Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi in the Asian Games quarterfinals on Sunday. | Photo Credit: REUTERS

India’s hopes of an individual medal in badminton at the ongoing Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026 ended on Sunday as P.V. Sindhu and Unnati Hooda both suffered defeats in the quarterfinals.

World Championships bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, and the mixed doubles duo of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto also bowed out of the competition at the same stage.

The 31-year-old Sindhu, a two-time Asian Games medallist, took the lead before losing 21-11, 18-21, 10-21 to China’s Chen Yu Fei in an hour and 15 minutes.

Sindhu’s loss came after Unnati Hooda played a gruelling 66-minute encounter against Akane Yamaguchi and almost pulled off another medal. The Japanese, a three-time World Champion, eventually kept her composure to clinch the contest 21-16, 14-21, 21-17.

Dhruv-Tanisha fought hard in their 14-21, 21-18, 18-21 loss to Chinese World No. 1 duo of Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dongping.

Treesa and Gayatri were eliminated after an 18-21, 9-21 defeat against Malaysian World No. 5 pair of Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan.

Indian shuttlers failed to win a medal in individual events at the Asian Games for the first time since the 2014 edition in Incheon where only the women’s team had bagged a bronze. In the current edition, the only podium finish was achieved in the men’s team which settled for bronze after losing to China in the semifinals.

Published on Sep 27, 2026

Latest on Sportstar

View the original on Sportstar →

KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.