Nagoya: Jay Meena secured India's first-ever soft tennis medal at the Asian Games, winning a bronze after losing to Japan's Takuya Kurosaka in the men's singles semifinals on Wednesday.
Playing in his third Asian Games, the 26-year-old Meena produced a spirited fightback after falling three games behind but could not sustain the momentum, losing 2-4 (3-5, 1-4, 1-4, 4-1, 6-4, 1-4) to Kurosaka in the 45-minute match.
Meena, a 2022 National Games gold-medallist from Dewas in Madhya Pradesh, struggled to settle into the match as Kurosaka took the opening two games 5-3 and 4-1.
The Japanese player then extended his lead by winning the third game 4-1, putting Meena under pressure.
With his medal assured but a place in the final at stake, Meena mounted a strong fightback.
He responded by taking the fourth game 4-1 and followed it up by edging a closely contested fifth game 6-4 to reduce the deficit and keep his hopes of completing a remarkable comeback alive.
However, Kurosaka regrouped in the sixth game and won it 4-1 to book his place in the final, while Meena won the bronze.
Earlier in the day, Meena had reached the semifinals after beating the Philippines' Sherwin Nuguit 4-3 (0-4, 4-2, 2-4, 4-2, 5-3, 2-4, 7-5) in a fiercely contested quarterfinal.
Meena has previously competed at the 2018 and 2022 Asian Games.
He had earlier defeated Pakistan's Arain Hussain 4-0 in Group D to qualify for the quarterfinals. Meena previously won a bronze medal in the mixed doubles event of the 2024 World Soft Tennis Championship.