On Friday, defending champions India saw an end to their campaign at the 2026 Badminton Asia Team Championships in Qingdao. India’s young women’s team were defeated by hosts China in the quarterfinals match. The loss was more disappointing as they got clean swept by 0-3 and have to return back without any medal from the continental championship. China’s top-ranked players dominated over India’s young talents in women’s singles, including world no. 10 Gao Fang Jie.
In the first women’s singles match, India’s Tanvi Sharma suffered a disappointing loss to China’s ace player Geo, who defeated the Indian in a decisive win by sets of 21-9, 21-9. Continuing the dominant run, world no. 4 pair of Jia Yi Fan and Zhang Shu Xian defeated the top-ranked Indian duo of Tressa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand by sets of 24-22, 21-17.
In the opening game, Tressa and Gayatri forced their opponent into getting some extra points, but they failed to strike back against the Chinese pair to close out the match at 22-24. Continuing the momentum forward, the Chinese pair then closed out the match by winning it over the Indian duo of Tressa and Gayatri in straight games.
Meanwhile, in the third match, India lost the women’s event through Rakshitha Sree. Despite winning the first set by 21-14, the Indian lost against Wen Jing Xu, by sets of 21-14, 15-21, 17-21.
India also faced disappointment in the men’s event after losing by 1-3 to South Korea. The only positive result for the team was through Kidambi Srikanth, while they lost two doubles and one men’s singles match.
In the first men’s singles match, India’s Srikanth secured a comfortable win over Ji Hoon Choi in straight games by sets of 21-15, 21-16. Tying the lead, China’s World No. 74 Tae Bin Yoo upset India’s Ayush Shetty in a one-hour-long and 24-minute match by sets of 18-21, 21-14, 26-24.
With both teams in a tie, India’s quarterfinals success now rested in the hands of Lakshya Sen and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy in the men’s doubles event. However, things did not work well in their favor as the Indian duo lost their quarterfinals match, which resulted in the team’s campaign coming to an end at the Badminton Asian Team Championship 2026.
With the loss, the Indian team remains medal-less this season and has their third consecutive loss in the tournament.
