Asian Games 2026 Highlights: Quimcy Dsouza into Teqball semis; women’s cricket team advance to semis
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Quimcy Dsouza enters semi-finals of Women's Singles Teqball event. (Photo Credits: FITEQ)
The Indian women's cricket team and men's soft tennis team opened their 2026 Asian Games campaign on Friday, a day before the opening ceremony.
Harmanpreet Kaur and co were up against hosts Japan in the quarter-final, and the team delivered a commanding win to put them up against Bangladesh in the semi-finals.
In soft tennis, the Indian men's team comprising Jay Meena, Om Yadav, Aniket Patel, Aryan Thakur, and Yogesh Chaudhary were knocked out in the quarterfinals, losing to Indonesia.
Besides, Teqball action continued with Quimcy D'Souza entering the women's singles semi-final, and D'Souza-Anas Beg moving to the mixed doubles bronze medal match.
As it happened:
Tune in tomorrow as the 20th edition of the quadrennial Games officially starts with the opening ceremony at 2:30 PM IST.
Indian pair Quimcy D'Souza and Mohamed Anas Baig advanced to the bronze medal match with a straight-sets 12-3, 12-6 win over the Philippines in the Repechage.
The Indian pair dominated the match, showcasing some quality shots to claim their second win of the day over the Philippines and keeping their medal hopes alive.
They will now have a rest day tomorrow and will return to the bronze medal match on Sunday against one of the two losers of the semi-finals.
The Indian pair will face the Philippines in the repechage match.
This will be a rematch of their group-stage encounter, where the Indian pair won in straight sets. Quimcy and Anas will look to repeat that result and keep their campaign going in Aichi-Nagoya.
The winner of the repechage will advance to the bronze medal match on Sunday against one of the semi-final losers, while the loser will leave Japan without a medal.
The Indian pair gave a good fight to the Vietnamese pair, but couldn't find their best and bowed out in straight games, missing out on their chances to fight for the gold medal.
Quimcy D'Souza and Mohamed Anas Baig will still have a chance to fight for the gold medal, as they will be returning for the repechage match against one of the other three losers of the quarterfinals.
Quimcy had already booked her spot in the semi-finals of women's singles and will try to get another shot at a medal with a win in this repechage match at 4:00 PM IST.
Indian pair Quimcy D'Souza and Mohamed Anas Baig to take on Vietnam's Gian Nghi Trinh and Hoang Minh Tan Nguyen in the quarterfinals.
The winner of the match will remain in the title hunt, while the loser will move to the repechage round for a second chance at a bronze medal.
Quimcy D'Suoza and Mohamed Anas Baig ended their group stage campaign with a solid straight-sets, 12-1, 12-6 win over Kuwait's Hessah Alfailakawi and Salman Alebraheem.
The duo finished the group stage with 6 points, having two wins from the four matches and finished third in their group to qualify for the quarterfinals.
The quarterfinal action will start later today after 3:00 PM IST.
Quimcy D'Souza and Maohamed Anas Beg went down in straight games, 3-12, 8-12, to the top seed Thai pairing of Phakpong Dejaroen and Suphawadi Wonghamchan.
The duo will still have their last group match against Kuwait, and a win might help them to qualify for the quarterfinals.
Aryan Thakur fought bravely against Bagus Pradewa in the singles match, but he faced a close 3-4 defeat in the 7-game thrilling match lasted for 40 minutes.
After losing the first game 2-4, he rallied back and went on to take a 2-1 lead, winning the next two games 4-0 and 6-4. But then, Bagus won the next two games, 4-2 and 4-1 and was just a game away from confirming a medal for Indonesia.
Aryan continued his fighting spirit and forced the decider with a 4-1 win in the sixth game. But eventually he fell short in the final game tiebreaker, losing 2-7.
Despite his efforts, he couldn't find a win, and India faced a 0-2 defeat to Indonesia and hence will have no medal in the team event, being knocked out in the quarterfinals.
The Indian women’s cricket team defeated Japan by 8 wickets in a one-sided quarterfinal contest, chasing the low total in just 5 overs of play.
Earlier, Indian bowlers bowled Japan out for just 57 runs, with world No. 1 Women's T20I bowler Shree Charani finishing with a four-wicket haul.
And then Shafali Verma's blistering innings of 40 runs off 15 balls proved to be enough to chase down this total despite two early wickets of G Kamalini and Bharti Fulmali.
India will next take on Bangladesh in the semi-finals on Sunday.
Tio and Fernando made a strong start in the first doubles match, outscoring the Indian pair of Jay Meena and Yogesh Choudhary in the first three games with domination, 4-2, 4-0, 4-0.
But then, the Indian pair bounced back to win the next two games with the same score of 4-1. Indonesia still kept their lead and won the next game to extend it to a 4-2 lead in the match.
They rode the momentum and closed out the match by winning the seventh game, and took this close match in 27 minutes with a 5-2 score.
Up Next: Aryan Thakur will be representing India in a must-win singles match against Bagus Pradewa.
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