Indian tennis touched a new low on Thursday as the country’s contingent returned 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 curtain down on India’s campaign. After the exit of the 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.
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 tennis fans some solace. After his retirement, India’s leading doubles players Yuki Bhambri and N. Sriram Balaji were expected to carry forward the tradition, but they crashed out of both the men’s doubles and mixed doubles.
Nagal is already 29 and, by the time Doha hosts the next Asian Games in 2030, the player from Jhajjar will be 33.
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. “DK (Dhakshineswar) has shown his playing level on the Tour but needs more work to sustain his short bursts and turn them into good performances through a physically demanding multi-week national campaign if he sees himself as being the torchbearer of the team,” Singh said. Talking about the doubles, Singh said Bhambri and Bhosale came up against a tough Chinese Taipei team. “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.
