India’s 24-year Asian Games men’s doubles medalling run ends after quarter-final exits in Aichi-Nagoya
India’s 24-year run of winning a men’s doubles medal at the Asian Games ended on Wednesday when Yuki Bhambri and Dhakshineswar Suresh were beaten 6-7(5), 3-6 by Chinese Taipei’s Ho Chenjui and Hsu Yu-hsiou in the quarter-finals of the tennis tournament at the Asian Games 2026, played at the Higashiyama Park Tennis Center in Aichi-Nagoya.
The country’s streak of medalling in men’s doubles began at the Busan 2002 Games and extended through six consecutive editions. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi won gold at Busan 2002 and Doha 2006; Somdev Devvarman and Sanam Singh took gold in Guangzhou 2010; Saketh Myneni and Sanam Singh won silver at Incheon 2014; Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan earned bronze at Jakarta-Palembang 2018; and Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan claimed silver at Hangzhou 2022.
Bhambri and Suresh pushed Ho and Hsu in a tight opening set, which the Chinese Taipei duo won in a tiebreak 7-6(5), before dropping the second set 3-6 as Ho and Hsu advanced to the semi-finals.
Earlier in the tournament the top-seeded Indian pair, Anirudh Chandrasekar and N. Sriram Balaji, were eliminated in the quarter-finals by China’s Zhang Tianhui and Jiang Fumin.
Indian doubles hopes were further diminished as the report noted losses in the women’s and mixed doubles events, leaving India without a tennis doubles medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Games. Both Indian men’s pairings—Yuki Bhambri/Dhakshineswar Suresh and Anirudh Chandrasekar/N. Sriram Balaji—exited in the quarter-finals.
The article described the result as ending India’s pursuit of a seventh consecutive Asiad men’s doubles medal, stating it brought to a close a 24-year run that began at Busan 2002. A social media post included in the report read: "INDIA’S 28-YEAR MEN’S DOUBLES MEDAL STREAK AT ASIAN GAMED ENDS! 💔For the first time since 1998, India will return from the Asian Games without a medal in Men’s doubles tennis.2002 Busan | 🥇 Paes & Bhupathi2006 Doha | 🥇 Paes & Bhupathi2010 Guangzhou | 🥇 Somdev & Sanam… https://t.co/bhbW1I4zRM"
Bhambri and Suresh’s quarter-final defeat ended India’s six-edition sequence of medalling in men’s doubles at the Asian Games, and the country will leave Aichi-Nagoya without a tennis doubles medal.
