Asian Games: Jay Meena Wins India's First Ever Soft Tennis Bronze Medal

Nagoya: Jay Meena secured India's first ever soft tennis medal at the Asian Games, fetching a bronze after losing to Japan's Takuya Kurosaka in the men's singles semifinals here on Wednesday.

Playing in his third Asian Games, the 26-year-old Jay produced a spirited fightback after falling three games behind but could not sustain the momentum, losing 2-4 (3-5, 1-4, 1-4, 4-1, 6-4, 1-4) to Kurosaka in the 45-minute clash.

"You know what? It's an Olympic medal for me," said Jay, who claimed mixed doubles bronze at the World Championship and a men's singles bronze at the 2024 Asian Championships in Mungyeong, South Korea.

He was striving for an Asian Games medal for the last two editions and narrowly missed out on a bronze after losing to his opponent from hosts China in Hangzhou 2023.

"I know what it takes to win a medal at this stage. Only a player, a coach and their team know how much struggle, how much pain we go through. It's really, really hard. It's so stressful. You have to be mentally strong enough to handle a situation like this," he said.

Jay, who hails from Madhya Pradesh's Dewas and is a 2022 National Games gold-medallist, struggled to find his rhythm early on as Kurosaka established an advantage, winning the first two games 5-3 and 4-1.

The Japanese player then moved further ahead by taking the third game 4-1, leaving Jay with little margin for error.

With his medal assured but a place in the final at stake, Jay mounted a strong fightback.

He responded by taking the fourth game 4-1 and followed it up by edging a closely-contested fifth game 6-4 to reduce the deficit and keep his hopes of completing a remarkable comeback alive.

However, Kurosaka regrouped in the sixth game and closed out the contest 4-1 to book his place in the final, while Jay had to settle for the bronze.

"This situation I faced so many times, but the Asian Games is a really big stage. That's a different feeling. But today, I conquered the pressure. I took myself out of that situation and saw the medal, saw the plays and saw the efforts of my coach and team.

"This doesn't change me, but it gives me motivation for my future and upcoming events because this is starting. I crossed the quarters. Now I just have to continue to change the colour of the medals in my future," added Jay.

Earlier in the day, Jay had reached the semifinals after seeing off the Philippines' Sherwin Nuguit 4-3 (0-4, 4-2, 2-4, 4-2, 5-3, 2-4, 7-5) in a fiercely contested quarterfinal.

Jay had also participated in the 2018 and 2023 editions of the Asian Games.

He had earlier defeated Pakistan's Arain Hussain 4-0 in Group D to qualify for the quarterfinals.