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Jay Meena assured Indias first-ever medal in soft tennis at the Asian Games after advancing to the mens singles semi-finals at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 edition.
Meena defeated Philippines Sherwin Nuguit in a thrilling mens singles quarter-final, registering a hard-fought 4-3 victory to book his place in the last four. The Indian player won the contest with a scoreline of 0-4, 4-2, 2-4, 5-3, 2-4, 7-5, overcoming a tough challenge from his Filipino opponent. With all semi-finalists guaranteed a medal in soft tennis, Meenas qualification assured India its maiden Asian Games medal in the sport. Meena will now compete in the semi-finals as he aims to continue his historic campaign and secure a place in the gold medal match. Meanwhile, two-Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker advanced to the women's 10m air pistol individual final at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026, leading India's strong showing across shooting, rowing and canoe sprint events on Wednesday. Bhaker secured her place in the final after a strong qualification performance, while fellow Indian shooters Suruchi Inder Singh and Esha Singh missed out on a spot in the medal round. In rowing, Balraj Panwar qualified for the men's single sculls final after finishing third in his heat with a time of 6:52.84 seconds. He finished fourth overall across the two heats to book his place in Final A. The men's double sculls pair of Satnam Singh and Salman Khan also progressed to the final after finishing second in their heat with a time of 6:15.63 seconds. They finished fourth overall across the two heats. India's Harshwardhan Shaktawat, Varinder Singh, L Naocha Singh Oinam and Arun Singh qualified for the men's kayak four 500m final after finishing third in Heat 1 of the canoe sprint event with a time of 1:29.447. In canoe sprint, Megha Pradeep finished fifth in the women's canoe single 200m heats to qualify for the semi-finals. Parvathy Geetha and Phairembam Soniya Devi also advanced to the women's kayak double 500m event. In table tennis, Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade defeated Maldives' Mohamed Ismail and Fathimath Ali in the mixed doubles round 2 match. Manush Shah and Diya Chitale also progressed after defeating Sri Lanka's Chanul Kulappuwawadu and Bimandee Swarna. In swimming, Benedicton Beniston finished fourth in his men's 100m butterfly heat and 13th overall, while Sajan Prakash did not start the event, with both missing out on qualification for the final. Vedaant Madhavan finished sixth and Aneesh Sunil fourth in their respective men's 200m freestyle heats and will await final qualification confirmation. Meanwhile, Jaswinder Singh and Nitin Kumar finished fourth in the men's pair rowing heats and will compete in Final B. In the women's four rowing event, Gurbani Kaur, Aleena Anto, Tendenthoi Haobijam and Poonam also featured in the heats. India's athletes continued their push for medals across multiple disciplines as competition progressed at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. (ANI)
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