Indian tennis enters a dark phase as safety net disappears in Nagoya

Indian tennis arrived at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games with a proud history behind it. It leaves Japan with something it has not experienced in four decades: no medal.

For the first time since 1986, India failed to win a single tennis medal at the Asian Games. Since 1990, there had been at least one podium finish at every edition. That run finally ended when Sumit Nagal, India's last remaining hope, lost 4-6, 4-6 to China's Wu Yibing in the men's singles quarter-final.

The result is not just a bad Asian Games campaign. It is a reflection of how far Indian tennis has slipped.

This was once a sport in which India could almost always count on a medal. Leander Paes remains India's most decorated Asian Games athlete, with eight medals, including five golds. Mahesh Bhupathi, Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna carried that tradition forward, giving Indian fans players to follow deep into Grand Slam tournaments and major international events.

In Nagoya, there was none of that assurance. Courtesy: Sony LIV MESSY FROM THE START

India's problems began before the first match.

The Asian Games squad was embroiled in a selection controversy after five players were left out following the government's pruning of the proposed contingent. Manas Dhamne, Vaishnavi Adkar, Sahaja Yamalapalli, Vaidehee Chaudhari and Prarthana Thombare were among those affected. AITA disputed the account of how the omissions happened, while the Sports Authority of India maintained that the players had not been part of the final recommended list.

The most glaring consequence was India's absence from the women's singles draw. Sahaja, India's top-ranked women's singles player, along with fellow contenders Vaishnavi and Vaidehee, were all left out.

Bopanna questioned the process and argued that players who had earned their rankings through international competition deserved their opportunity.

It was hardly the ideal preparation for a campaign in which India needed every available weapon.WHERE ARE THE SUCCESSORS?

The deeper problem is that Indian tennis has not found replacements for its golden generation.

Bopanna's retirement has left a particularly large hole. He was still winning Grand Slam titles into his 40s, reached world No.1 in doubles and remained India's great insurance policy at major tournaments. He won the men's doubles gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games and was part of the mixed doubles gold-medal-winning team at Hangzhou 2022.

Now, there is no Indian player who gives you the same feeling that a Grand Slam or major title is within reach.

There are good professionals. Yuki Bhambri and N Sriram Balaji have experience, while younger players such as Dhakshineswar Suresh have shown flashes of promise. But flashes are not enough.

At Nagoya, both Indian men's doubles combinations fell in the quarter-finals. Balaji and Anirudh Chandrasekar lost a deciding match tie-break, while Bhambri and Dhakshineswar also went out at the last-eight stage. The mixed and women's doubles combinations could not rescue the campaign either.

For a country that once relied heavily on doubles success, that is a worrying decline. Courtesy: Sony LIV SUMIT NAGAL'S FALL

Sumit Nagal was perhaps the clearest symbol of both hope and disappointment.

In 2024, Nagal appeared to be breaking through. He entered the world's top 100 after winning the Chennai Challenger and climbed to a career-high No. 68 in July. He also became the first Indian to win an ATP Masters 1000 match on clay and looked capable of pushing towards the top 50.

That year, Nagal achieved something no Indian had managed since Prajnesh Gunneswaran in 2019 — he played in the main draw of all four Grand Slams. He reached the second round at the Australian Open, while also featuring in the main draws at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open.

But he could not maintain that momentum.

Since then, Nagal has struggled to stay in touch with the higher levels of the game. By the 2026 Asian Games, he was ranked 248, according to the ITF's September rankings. He was still India's leading singles player and the country's final hope in Nagoya, but his quarter-final exit once again exposed the lack of depth behind him.

The slide was stark at the Grand Slams too. Nagal was forced to navigate qualifying at the US Open, where he lost in the opening round to France's Arthur Gea.

From playing all four Grand Slam main draws in 2024 to struggling even to get through qualifying two years later, Nagal's fall mirrors the wider uncertainty surrounding Indian men's tennis.

Meanwhile, at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Dhakshineswar reached the third round before losing to Chinese Taipei's Chun-Hsin Tseng. Once Nagal fell, India's singles challenge was over.

Nagal is 29. By the time the next Asian Games are held in Doha in 2030, he will be 33.

That makes the need for a new generation even more urgent.WOMEN LEFT BEHIND

If men's tennis is struggling for successors, women's tennis has arguably suffered an even sharper decline.

Sania Mirza's retirement in 2023 ended one of the greatest careers in Indian tennis. A six-time Grand Slam champion and former world No.1 in doubles, Mirza was the face of Indian women's tennis for more than a decade.

Since her departure, there has been no comparable player.

That absence was brutally visible in Nagoya. India did not even have a women's singles entry. Ankita Raina and Rutuja Bhosale competed in doubles, but their campaign ended without a medal.

India's tennis decline cannot be blamed on one player, one selection decision or one bad tournament. But Nagoya brought all those problems together.

At Hangzhou, India had won mixed doubles gold and men's doubles silver. Three years later, there was nothing.

Even the depth that once existed in women's tennis has dwindled. Ankita Raina, for instance, was still playing Grand Slam qualifying rounds as recently as the Australian Open 2024, where she reached the second round of qualifying. Now, even that level of representation has disappeared.

Other Indian sports produced historic performances in Aichi-Nagoya. Tennis, once one of the country's most dependable Asian Games disciplines, produced its first medal-less campaign in 40 years.

Safe to say, this is one of the lowest points in Indian tennis history, if not the lowest.

The medals are gone. The icons have retired. Even the Grand Slam qualifying spots are becoming a thing of the past. And the next generation is yet to convince that it can fill the void.- Ends