India's badminton campaign in the Asian Games 2026 ended on Sunday with two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu exiting in the quarterfinals.
Sindhu lost to Tokyo Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei of China, 21-11, 18-21, 10-21.
India also saw three other hopefuls crash out in the quarterfinal stage.
Teenager Unnati Hooda was knocked out by three-time world champion Akane Yamaguchi, 16-21, 21-14, 17-21.
In mixed doubles, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto fought hard but lost, 14-21, 21-18, 18-21, to China's World No 1 pair of Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dongping.
Earlier on the day, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand bowed out in the women's doubles quarterfinals, losing 18-21, 9-21 to Malaysia's Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan. Treesa and Gayatri had won their maiden World Championship bronze last month.
Sindhu's bad luck
Sindhu had to play a third match in less than 24 hours, and it was never going to be easy in a tie against a formidable opponent like Chen.
"I think I should have finished it off in the second set itself but I couldn't. Overall, it was not that easy a game or I would get easy points. There were really long rallies," Sindhu said after the match.
"It's a bit hurtful but I need to recover from this. It would have been good if I would have gone to the semifinals. Unfortunate, but never mind, these things keep happening. It's important to get back stronger."
Sindhu had defeated Chen in July at the Japan Open and started the game strong, taking a 9-2 lead. The Chinese fought back to reduce the deficit to 10-13 but Sindhu amassed five points in a row before pulling away.
In the second game, Chen took the lead and was in control at 9-5 before Sindhu produced a remarkable turnaround to level it at 9 all. As the game became more intense, the rallies increased and Chen took advantage. The Chinese took a 4-0 lead in the third game and managed to carry on the momentum throughout.
.. after the high of Hangzhou
For Indian badminton, the Aichi-Nagoya Games were a forgettable one as the team finished with just a bronze medal in the bag.
It was a disappointing outcome compared to the three medals, including a gold secured at the previous edition in Hangzhou.
India had a gold, a silver and a bronze in the previous edition. The gold, won by the men's doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, was India's first in Asian Games badminton.
Back to bronze age
In the last two Asian Games, India had at least two medals, no less than a silver. Sindhu was a silver medallist in 2018 in Jakarta.
Before 2018, India had not gone past the third place in any badminton event. A women's team event bronze in 2014 had ended a 28-year wait for a badminton medal in the Asiad.
Now, Indian badminton has slipped back to that 'bronze age' as the team returns with just one third-place.
India managed to bag the bronze in the men's team event after a disappointing loss to China in the semifinals. Much was expected from the men's doubles pair of Satwik and Chirag, but they suffered a shock exit in the first round.