India secured at least a bronze medal in the men’s team badminton event at the 2026 Asian Games after defeating Japan 3-0 in the quarterfinals at the Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium on Tuesday.
Lakshya Sen overcame a strong challenge from Kodai Naraoka in the opening singles before the doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty extended India’s lead. Ayush Shetty then completed the clean sweep with a straight-game win over Koki Watanabe.
Lakshya had to fight back after losing the opening game 11-21. The Indian responded strongly, winning the second game 21-5 to force a decider.
Naraoka regained control in the third game and opened up a five-point lead, but Lakshya fought back to level the score at 19-19 before taking the next two points to win 11-21, 21-5, 21-19.
Satwik and Chirag, ranked fifth in the world, then faced Japan’s ninth-ranked pair Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi, the former world champions.
The Indian duo won a closely fought opening game 21-18. Japan saved three match points in the second game and levelled the score at 20-20, but Satwik and Chirag held their nerve to win 24-22 and put India 2-0 ahead.
Ayush was then tasked with sealing the tie and produced a controlled performance against Watanabe. He dominated the opening game to win 21-10 and maintained his advantage in the second, leading 11-5 at the interval before closing out the match 21-10, 21-19.
The victory sent India into the semifinals and assured the team of at least a bronze medal.
India had opened their campaign with a 3-0 win over Bangladesh in the round of 16. They will face the winner of the quarterfinal between China and South Korea in the semifinals on Wednesday.
The result also keeps India in contention to improve on their silver-medal finish from the previous edition, where they lost the final to China.
(IANS Inputs)
