NAGOYA: India women's badminton team lost against Japan in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, thereby missing out on a chance to win a medal in the ongoing Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan.
Japan took the lead after Akane Yamaguchu beat familiar rival PV Sindhu in the first women's singles. As was expected, it was a tightly-contested match. It was Sindhu who pocketed the first game but Yamaguchi fought back to win the next essay before clinching the deciding game to hand her team the vital lead. Yamaguchi won 21-23, 21-18, 21-11.
Teenager Unnati Hooda suffered a similar fate as she lost against Tomoka Miyazaki in straight games -- 16-21, 18-21.
World Championships bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand kept India's hopes alive with a victory over Yuki Fukushima and Mayu Matsumoto in the first women's doubles. The Indian pair won 21-17, 21-16 in 52 games.
Now, the onus was on the young Tanvi Sharma to bring India level. However, former World 1 Nozomi Okuhara proved to be too strong for the young talent from India as the veteran shuttler won 21-12, 21-10 to seal the match in favour of Japan.
The focus will now be on the men's team as they also take on Japan in the quarterfinals. The onus will be on the likes Lakshya Sen, Ayush Shetty, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, to name a few, to lead from the front and try and help them secure a medal.