India’s campaign in badminton came to a disappointing end as the contingent bagged only one bronze medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026.
PV Sindhu and Unnati Hooda suffered close defeats in their respective women’s singles quarterfinals to bow out of the competition. Sindhu lost to China’s Chen Yufei 1-2 despite winning the first game, while Hooda went down to Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi 1-2 after winning the second game.
India finished without a medal across the five individual badminton events at Aichi-Nagoya 2026. The men’s team bronze was India’s only medal in badminton at the ongoing edition of the Asian Games.
Notably, for the first time since the 2014 edition in Incheon, Indian shuttlers have failed to win a medal in the individual events at the Asian Games.
Earlier today, reigning world women’s doubles medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost to World No.5 Malaysian pair of Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan in the quarterfinals, while the mixed doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila went down to the world No. 1 Chinese pair of Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dongping in the quarterfinals too.
There was no medal in the women’s singles, men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, women’s team event or the mixed events too, as the men’s bronze remained the sole joy for the Indian badminton contingent.
India made it to the men’s team semifinals to secure a bronze, while the women’s team suffered a quarterfinal defeat to Japan.
In a major shock, defending gold medallists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a shocking defeat in the round of 32 to Thailand’s tricky pair of Pakkapon Teeraratsakul and Peeratchai Sukphun after receiving a bye in the Round of 64.
Indian men’s singles stars Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty also lost before the quarterfinals. Lakshya received a bye in the round of 64 but went down to Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the round of 32. Meanwhile, Shetty defeated Makhsut Tajibullayev in the round of 32 but lost to Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen in the pre-quarters.
The other men’s doubles pair of Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun went down to Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri in the round of 32, while the other women’s doubles pair of Kavipriya Selvam and Simran Singhi lost to Indonesia’s Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Meilysa Trias Puspitasari in the round of 32.
India had won three medals at the 2023 Hangzhou Games but will take only one bronze from Aichi-Nagoya.
