Ichinomiya City. The Indian men's badminton team has performed brilliantly and reached the semi-finals in the Asian Games 2026. In the quarter-finals, India defeated host Japan 3-0. With this victory, the Indian team has also ensured at least a bronze medal.

Lakshya Sen laid the foundation of India's victory. After this, the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won the second match, while Ayush Shetty won the third match and secured India's place in the semi-finals.

Lakshya Sen's brilliant comeback in the first match

In the first singles match, Lakshya Sen faced Kodai Naroka of Japan. Lakshya suffered a 11-21 defeat in the opening game, but the Indian player made a tremendous comeback.

In the second game, Lakshya did not give any chance to Naroka and won the game by 21-5. In the deciding game, the Japanese had taken a five-point lead at one point, but Lakshya made a brilliant comeback under pressure.

After the score was tied at 19-19, Lakshya won the next two points in a row and won the match 11-21, 21-5, 21-19.

Satwik-Chirag gave 2-0 lead

In the second match, world number five Indian men's doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty took to the court. In front of them was the world number nine pair of Japan's Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi.

The Indian pair won the first game 21-18. In the second game, the Japanese pair fought hard and saved three match points to make the score 20-20.

However, Satwik and Chirag maintained their composure and eventually won the second game 24-22 to give India a 2-0 lead.

Ayush Shetty did all the work directly in the game

The responsibility of taking India to the semi-finals was on young shuttler Ayush Shetty. He faced Koki Watanabe of Japan.

Ayush played aggressively from the beginning and won the first game 21-10. Watanabe tried to make a comeback in the second game, but Ayush maintained his dominance.

The Indian player won the match 21-10, 21-19 and gave India a decisive lead of 3-0. With this, the Indian men's team also confirmed its medal by entering the semi-finals.

Bangladesh was also defeated 3-0

India started their campaign at the Asian Games 2026 with a 3-0 win against Bangladesh. In that match, Lakshya Sen, Ayush Shetty and Kidambi Srikanth won their respective singles matches and took the team to the quarter-finals.

Now we will face China or South Korea

After defeating Japan, the Indian men's team will now face the winner of the quarter-final between China and South Korea in the semi-final match on Wednesday.

India now has a chance to better its previous Asian Games performance. In the last tournament, the Indian men's team had won the silver medal and lost to China in the final.