On September 23, Jay Meena scripted history as he won India's first-ever medal at Asian Games in soft tennis. Meena lost to Japan's Takuya Kurosaka in the semifinals but managed to secure a bronze medal.
Kurosaka beat Meena 4-2 in the semifinal. Meena lost the first three sets but staged a comeback by clinching two sets. But, Kurosaka held his nerve to beat Meena 5-3, 4-1, 4-1, 1-4, 4-6, 4-1.
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During his semifinal match, he was struggling with pain in his hip. He took a medical timeout as well and pushed through pain to complete the game.
“Whenever I hit a backhand, my hip has a little pinching, so that’s why I struggle on my backhand,” Meena said.
“I felt it from the starting games, and I was like, ‘OK, I will ignore it’. But as I continued playing, whenever I hit a hard backhand in a quick moment, it was pinching more. The pain was increasing.”
Earlier, Meena beat Philippines' Sherwin Nuguit in a closely-contested quarter-final to assure India of a medal. This is India’s fifth bronze medal at the Asian Games 2026.
In the previous edition of the Asian Games, Meena missed out on a medal. He lost in the quarter-final round. He had participated in the Jakarta Asian Games 2018 as well.
Jay Meena discovered love for soft tennis by accident
As a kid, Meena had imagined himself becoming a cricketer like millions of Indians do. But, the Madhya Pradesh-born Meena learned about the lesser-known soft tennis sport at Pioneer Public School. He started his journey as a ball boy and pursued soft tennis as a career. By the time he was a 14-year-old, he was already playing competitive soft tennis in Japan.
Earlier, Meena's first medal came at the 2022 National Games in Gujarat. He won the gold medal at the event. He is also India's first-ever medallist at the World Soft Tennis Championships in the 2024 edition. In the mixed doubles event, he teamed up with Aadhya Tiwari to win a bronze in mixed doubles. He became a national champion in 2025 and won India's first medal at Asian Soft Tennis Championships as well, another bronze. He claimed as many as four medals at the event (singles, mixed doubles, men's team and mixed team).