Tan Kim Her: India’s Asian Games bronze came after players gave their best against China

Indian men’s badminton coach Tan Kim Her praised his players for giving their best despite the team’s 1-3 defeat to China in the Asian Games 2026 semifinal, which secured India a bronze medal.

Tan highlighted Lakshya Sen’s opening singles against Shi Yu Qi, saying the first point was particularly important and suggesting India would have had a strong chance had the tie gone to a deciding rubber.

“Everyone played well today; everyone tried their best. Especially important was the first point from Lakshya,” Tan said.

Lakshya eventually lost 16-21, 18-21, before Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty brought India back into the contest with a 21-11, 22-20 victory over Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang.

Tan was particularly pleased with the way the world-class Indian pair controlled the front court.

“For Satwik and Chirag, today they were very good. The way we managed to control them, especially in front play, Chirag was dominant in front and the defence was solid. Everything was in place,” he said.

India then needed Ayush Shetty to level the tie, but he lost 19-21, 13-21 to Li Shi Feng.

Tan admitted the team had expected Ayush to deliver a point but felt the same pattern from the previous set returned.

In the deciding doubles, Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun pushed He Ji Ting and Liu Yi to three games before losing 16-21, 21-17, 9-21.

Tan felt fatigue played a role, particularly for Hariharan, while identifying service and receiving as the decisive areas.

“I think Hari and Arjun tried their very best. Physically, they started going down a little bit, especially Hari. He used a lot of energy. But we lost just because of service and receive, especially in the third game,” he said.

With the team bronze secured, Tan said the focus would now shift to the individual events.

“Anyway, they tried their very best. Now we start moving forward for individuals,” he added.