India, Sept. 5 -- It's true that Om Yadav never set out to play soft tennis. Growing up in Lucknow, the 21-year-old began with cricket in 2012, drifted to tennis soon after, and only reluctantly accepted soft tennis when a family friend nudged him toward the sport.

At first he resisted because soft tennis felt like a detour from the more glamorous courts of conventional tennis. But repeated wins, including first at district meets, then state and national events, slowly transformed reluctance into passion. In fact, each trophy and each hard-fought match stitched a new thread to his identity.

Today he trains with a single, clear aim: to bring India its first Asian Games soft tennis medal in Japan. India's history in Asian Games soft tenni...