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India's badminton individual medal hopes at the Asian Games 2026 ended on Sunday as PV Sindhu and Unnati Hooda bowed out in the women's singles quarterfinals.
Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu made a strong start against China's Chen Yu Fei but could not sustain the momentum, losing 21-11, 18-21, 10-21, according to ESPN. Sindhu took the opening game comfortably but Chen fought back to level the contest before dominating the decider. The defeat brought an end to India's campaign in badminton at the Games, with the men's team bronze remaining the country's only medal from the sport. Earlier, 18-year-old Unnati also came close to securing a medal before going down to Japan's former world No. 1 Akane Yamaguchi 16-21, 21-14, 17-21 in a closely fought quarterfinal. Unnati recovered after losing the opening game and forced a decider, but could not capitalise when Yamaguchi appeared to be struggling with a leg issue. The Indian stayed within touching distance in the closing stages, but errors and missed opportunities allowed Yamaguchi to edge ahead. At 16-14 and 18-16, the Japanese player managed to maintain her narrow advantage before closing out the match. In other events, boxer Ankush defeated Tajikistan's Nekruz Salimov in the men's 80kg quarterfinal to assure India of a medal. Archery continued to produce strong results, with India's men's and women's recurve teams defeating the Philippines and Mongolia respectively to reach the semifinals. India also advanced to the semifinals of the recurve mixed team and men's and women's compound team events. In athletics, Sreeshankar Murali and David Solomon qualified for the men's long jump final. Vithya Ramraj and Anu Raghavan also advanced to the women's 400m hurdles final after finishing second in their respective heats. Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan had earlier qualified for the men's 400m hurdles final, while Tejaswin Shankar stood third in the decathlon overall standings after the discus throw. In shooting, Neeru led the women's trap qualification after Day 1, with Aashima Ahlawat 16th and Manisha Keer 24th. Kynan Chenai was 11th in the men's trap qualification, followed by Shapath Bharadwaj 22nd and Ahvar Rizvi 35th. India's women's fencing team lost to Uzbekistan in the team sabre quarterfinals, while Hriday Chheda and Jai Sud finished eighth and ninth respectively in the individual dressage final. In surfing, Sivaraj Babu advanced to Round 3 of the men's shortboard, while Kamali Prakash missed out on progression in the women's event. India also suffered defeats in kurash and women's doubles sepaktakraw on Day 8. (ANI)
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