Sumit Nagal sole Indian remaining after heavy Day of exits at Asian Games 2026
Sumit Nagal was the only Indian to win on Wednesday at Asian Games 2026, progressing to the men’s singles quarter-finals while every other Indian entry in singles and doubles was eliminated.
India entered the day with players across four categories but suffered defeats in singles, both men’s doubles pairs and mixed doubles, leaving Nagal as the lone remaining Indian in the tennis draw. After two rounds that had suggested broader chances, Wednesday’s results severed India’s presence in all events except Nagal’s run in men’s singles.
Nagal defeated Uzbekistan’s Sergey Fomin 6-3, 6-2 in the men’s singles third round, dropping five games across the match to advance. He will next face third seed Wu Yibing for a place in the semi-finals.
Dhakshineswar Suresh exited the singles competition after losing to Chinese Taipei’s Chun-Hsin Tseng, 3-6, 4-6, unable to convert the opportunities that arose in the second set. Suresh’s defeat removed another Indian from contention in the men’s singles draw.
India’s two men's doubles pairs, both seeded, were beaten, ending medal hopes in the discipline. Fifth seeds Yuki Bhambri and Dhakshineswar Suresh lost 7-6(5), 6-3 to Chinese Taipei’s Chenjui Ho and Yu-Hsiou Hsu after failing to convert a set point in the first-set tiebreak; top seeds Anirudh Chandrasekar and N Sriram Balaji won the first set 7-6(4) against China’s Fumin Jiang and Tianhui Zhang but were edged in a deciding match tiebreak, with Jiang and Zhang closing it out 10-8.
Mixed doubles also produced an Indian exit as second seeds Rutuja Bhosale and Yuki Bhambri were defeated 6-3, 6-4 by Chinese Taipei’s Su-Wei Hsieh and Chun-Hsin Tseng. The loss followed earlier defeats for Ankita Raina with N Sriram Balaji and for Raina’s women’s doubles partnership with Bhosale.
With every other Indian now eliminated, the nation’s tennis medal prospects rest solely on Sumit Nagal. He faces third seed Wu Yibing in the quarter-finals with a place in the semi-finals at stake.