India’s shuttlers end Asian Games with a lone bronze as Sindhu, Unnati, Treesa-Gayatri lose

India’s badminton campaign at the Asian Games 2026 came to an end with only one bronze medal as PV Sindhu and Unnati Hooda suffered hard-fought defeats in the women’s singles quarterfinals at the Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium on Sunday.

India shuttlers had won a gold, a silver and a bronze medal in the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2022. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had won the men’s doubles event to bag India’s first-ever gold badminton at the Asian Games. The men had won the silver in the team event and HS Prannoy had bagged a bronze in the men’s singles event.

Poor show by India’s shuttlers

At the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games, India finished without a medal across the five individual badminton events. The men’s team bronze was India’s only medal in badminton at this edition of the Asian Games.

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Sindhu, who is ranked 11th in the badminton rankings, lost 11-21, 21-18, 21-10 to World No. 4 and Tokyo 2020 champion Chen Yufei of the People’s Republic of China.

PV Sindhu, who is ranked 11th in the badminton rankings, lost 11-21, 21-18, 21-10 to World No. 4 and Tokyo 2020 champion Chen Yufei of the People’s Republic of China. Pics: BAI/X

The Indian player made a superb start against the higher-ranked Chinese shuttler, racing to an early 7-2 advantage before taking an 11-8 lead into the interval.

Sindhu continued to dictate proceedings after the break and wrapped up the opening game. Chen Yufei responded in the second and opened up an 8-4 advantage, but Sindhu gradually reeled her back in to take an 11-10 lead into the interval.

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However, Chen Yufei wrested back control to take the second game and force a decider, which the Chinese shuttler sealed with ease. The defeat ended Sindhu’s bid for a second Asian Games women’s singles medal after her silver at Jakarta 2018.

Unnati pushes Yamaguchi before falling

Earlier, Unnati Hooda came agonisingly close to a maiden Asian Games medal after pushing home favourite Akane Yamaguchi to three games.

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The 24th-ranked Indian lost 21-16, 14-21, 21-17 to world No. 3 Akane Yamaguchi, a three-time world champion and former world No. 1.

Unnati Hooda lost 21-16, 14-21, 21-17 to world No. 3 Akane Yamaguchi, a three-time world champion and former world No. 1

After losing the opening game, Unnati responded impressively in the second, staying with the Japanese shuttler through the longer rallies before pulling away to force a decider.

There was little to separate the two players early in the third, with the scores level at 5-5. Yamaguchi edged ahead 11-8 at the interval but Unnati remained in contention deep into the game. The 19-year-old Indian stayed within touching distance before Yamaguchi held her nerve to close out the match.

Treesa-Gayatri, Dhruv-Tanisha lose

Earlier in the day, India’s women’s doubles medal hopes ended after Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost 21-18, 21-9 to Malaysia’s Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan in the quarterfinals.

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Treesa and Gayatri had reached the last eight after beating Japan’s world No. 3 pair Mayu Matsumoto and Yuki Fukushima.

In the mixed doubles, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto pushed Chinese pair Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping to three games before losing 21-14, 18-21, 21-18 in their quarterfinal.