Jay Meena assures India first Asian Games soft tennis medal

Jay Meena assured India its first-ever Asian Games medal in soft tennis on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, by defeating the Philippines' Sherwin Nuguit 4-3 in the men's singles quarterfinal at the Aichi-Nagoya Games. The seven-game contest went Meena's way 0-4, 4-2, 2-4, 5-3, 2-4, 7-5, booking his place in the last four, where all semifinalists are guaranteed a podium finish. Meena had opened his knockout run with a 4-0 group-stage victory over Pakistan's Hussain Arain. The semifinal against Japan's Kurosaka Takuya, scheduled for 8:30 a.m. IST at the Higashiyama Park Tennis Center, was delayed by rain in Nagoya, with officials confirming the weather interruption would also affect the rest of the day's matches. One account published Wednesday reported that Meena went on to lose the semifinal 2-4 and settled for bronze, but that result was not confirmed by other reporting available at the time of publication. The medal color therefore remains unresolved pending official confirmation of the completed semifinal. The milestone came in Meena's third Asian Games appearance, following Jakarta 2018 and Hangzhou 2022, where he reached the men's singles quarterfinals.