Jay Meena wins India’s first soft tennis medal at Asian Games 2026

Indian soft tennis player Jay Meena secured the nation’s first-ever Asian Games medal in the sport by winning bronze at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya. Meena dedicated the historic achievement to the people of India, emphasising that it was the result of years of hard work by athletes, coaches, family members and those involved in developing soft tennis in India.

Meena’s campaign concluded in the semi-finals with a 3-5, 1-4, 1-4, 4-1, 6-4, 1-4 defeat against Japan’s Takuya Kurosaka. After losing the first three sets, Meena rallied to win the fourth and fifth sets before Kurosaka secured victory in the sixth set.

Reflecting on his third Asian Games appearance, Meena spoke about overcoming past setbacks, including a quarter-final exit at the 2023 Asian Games. He said, “This was my third Asian Games, and before that, I also reached the quarterfinals of the 2023 Asian Games, and there I lost the quarterfinals. So, to overcome that and come here, that journey, that is only possible because of our team, our coaches, and the support that we get from family. Only they know how many nights of disappointment go into this effort. This is not just a medal, this is 25 to 30 years of the coaches’ hard work, and my own, our whole team’s hard work, it’s the result of that.”

Meena expressed gratitude towards the government, Sports Authority of India (SAI), the Amateur Soft Tennis Federation of India and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) for their support, highlighting the role of the TAGG (Target Asian Games Group) scheme. He added, “This is the first medal for India in soft tennis, and I would like to request that going forward, we get more support so that soft tennis can give many more medals to India and change their colour as well. We have full faith in this.”

He further noted that soft tennis is an underdeveloped and non-Olympic sport that often receives limited attention. “The government’s support has been very important, and we have received a lot of support from SAI as well. If an athlete gets the right support, they can achieve anything. The Amateur Soft Tennis Federation of India has worked very hard for soft tennis, and I would like to thank the Indian Olympic Association for supporting the sport. Soft tennis, being an underdeveloped and non-Olympic sport, often does not get as much attention. But today, through the TAGG scheme, the IOA has supported soft tennis, due to which India has won this historic medal. I would like to dedicate this medal to my countrymen. This is my country’s medal, and this is a historic medal,” he said.

Looking ahead, Meena expressed confidence in the Indian contingent’s performance, saying, “This is just the beginning. As we move forward, the Indian contingent will continue to bring home plenty of medals. I have complete confidence that we will surpass our previous Asian Games record and win many more medals this time.”

The Indian team has won 17 medals so far at the Asian Games — one gold, seven silver and nine bronze.

Meena’s coach Sudesh Sangate attributed the success to 22 years of dedicated work and thanked the Sports Ministry for supporting training camps in Korea, India and Japan that prepared the team for the Games. Sangate said, “This is the result of 22 years of hard work from our side, 22 years of hard work, and after 22 years of hard work today we have brought India its first medal. We are very happy and we also want to thank the Sports Ministry a lot, who gave us four camps for our Indian soft tennis team for the Asian Games. We prepared the kids very well during those camps. One of our camps was held in Korea, one or two camps were held in India, and the last camp, they helped us reach Japan 20 days prior, which they did very well so that we people.”

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