Nagoya: Indian tennis touched a new low on Thursday as the country's contingent returns empty-handed from the Asian Games for the first time since 1986, following the quarterfinal exit of Sumit Nagal in the men's singles, bringing the curtains down on India's campaign.
After the exit of medal hopeful doubles pairs on Wednesday, India needed its number one singles player Nagal to keep the country in the medal hunt, but he went down fighting 4-6 4-6 to China's Yibing Wu in one hour and 38 minutes.
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In every single edition since 1990, India have won medals at the continental showpiece and this time too, at least three medals were expected.
After the recent heartbreaking Davis Cup defeat to South Korea in Seoul in the Qualifiers Round two, a medal-winning show in Japan would have given the tennis fans some solace.
Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ankita Raina were the last singles players to win medals at the Asian Games. Both stood on the podium with bronze in 2018 Jakarta Games.
India missed out on singles medals in 2023 Hangzhou, with Nagal losing at the quarterfinal stage and Ramkumar Ramanathan exiting in the third round.
Rohan Bopanna, who rose to world number one rank in the world, helped India win two gold medals in 2018 (men's doubles with Divij Sharan) and 2022 (Rutuja Bhosale 2026).
After his retirement, India's best doubles players Yuki Bhambri and N Sriram Balaji
were expected to carry forward the tradition, but they crashed out from both men's doubles and mixed doubles.
Balaji-Anirudh Chandrasekar and Bhambri-Dhakshineswar Suresh both fell at the quarterfinal stage. India's new tennis hope Dhakshineswar fell in the third round in the men's singles.
Nagal is already 29 and by the time Doha hosts the next Asian Games in 2030, the player from Jhajjar will be 33.
India need to start looking at preparing the next generation right away, giving enough support to the next line of players.
India coach Ashutosh Singh, who watched India's campaign collapse in front of his eyes, told PTI, "We obviously would have wanted stronger results, particularly given the quality and experience within the team."
He acknowledged that the level of competition was "extremely high" but expected the singles player to rise up to the occasion.
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"Sumit Nagal competed hard in his matches. First beating Hong for the first time in his career, then overcoming Fomin, he did what was required. Even today, Sumit managed to create multiple opportunities but somehow was unable to convert them.
"DK (Dhakshineswar) has shown his playing level on the Tour but needs more work to sustain his short bursts into good performance through a physically demanding multiple week national campaign if he sees himself as being the torch bearer of the team," Singh said.
Talking about the doubles, Singh said, Bhambri and Bhosale got a tough Taipei team.
"The doubles combinations were finalised based on the overall team requirements and the performances and circumstances leading into the event. Unfortunately, we could not convert that opportunity into medals.
"Yuki and Rutuja were beaten by the Grand Slam champion Hseih who brought all her high level experience and her partner too was playing very attacking tennis."
Singh added," As a team, we take responsibility for the results. There is no point in looking for excuses. At the same time, a proper assessment has to consider the conditions, scheduling, preparation and the quality of opposition rather than looking only at the final scorelines."
AITA interim Secretary General Sunder Iyer was guarded in his reaction to India's dismal show but acknowledged that the national federation needs to support players in a better way.
"Players have tried to do their best. We reached three quarter-finals and were close to medals. As an association we need to see how to give more support to our players, juniors and professionals enabling them to do better," Iyer told PTI.
The coach signed off by acknowledging "the way the players stayed together as a group."
"There were difficult moments, selections and combinations that naturally bring pressure but the team maintained professionalism and supported one another throughout the campaign," he said.
