Asian Games: Indian women's badminton team campaign ends in QF

Ichinomiya City: The Indian women's badminton team's badminton campaign at the Asian Games 2026 came to an end in the quarterfinal as Tanvi Sharma lost to Nozomi Okuhara here on Tuesday.

Tanvi went down 21-12, 21-10 to Olympic medallist and former world No. 1 Nozomi Okuhara as India lost 3-1 to Japan, wrapping up their campaign in the quarter-finals.

India lost all three singles matches, with PV Sindhu and Unnati Hooda also suffering defeats earlier. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand secured India’s only win in the tie.

While the men's team will take on Japan in the quarterfinal later, Indian women shuttlers will now shift their focus to the individual events.

As India trailed 0-2 after PV Sindhu and Unnati Hooda lost their respective singles matches, World Championships bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand have kept India's hopes alive against Japan by beating Yuki Fukushima and Mayu Matsumoto 21-17, 21-16 in the third rubber.

In the first rubber, after rallying to win the first game in a tie-break, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu lost 21-23, 21-18, 21-11 against three-time world champion Yamaguchi.

Sindhu did well to cover up the 6-10 deficit, reaching 12-12 staging another comeback from 15-18 and saving a game point to win the opening game 23-21. Yamaguchi then pocketed the second game 21-18 to force the decider, which she won 21-11 to give Japan an early lead.

In the second rubber, Unnati Hooda lost to Akane Yamaguchi here at the Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium as Japan are leading India 2-0.

Unnati was leading 11-10 at the break in the first game, but the Indian lost momentum, allowing the Japanese shuttler to make a comeback and take the opening game 21-16.

The Indian was leading 11-4 in the second game, but as the finish line approached, she was trailing 15-16, and the Japanese didn't let the Indian come back in the game, wrapping up the match by taking the second 18-21.

India’s women have won just one Asian Games team medal, a bronze at the 2014 Incheon Games. In the 2023 edition, Indian women bowed out in the quarterfinal after losing 0-3 to Thailand.

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