Nagoya, Sept. 23 -- Jay Meena secured India's first ever soft tennis medal at the Asian Games, fetching a bronze after losing to Japan's Takuya Kurosaka in the men's singles semifinals here on Wednesday.
Playing in his third Asian Games, the 26-year-old Jay produced a spirited fightback after falling three games behind but could not sustain the momentum, losing 2-4 (3-5, 1-4, 1-4, 4-1, 6-4, 1-4) to Kurosaka in the 45-minute clash.
"You know what? It's an Olympic medal for me," said Jay, who claimed mixed doubles bronze at the World Championship and a men's singles bronze at the 2024 Asian Championships in Mungyeong, South Korea.
He was striving for an Asian Games medal for the last two editions and narrowly missed out on a bronze after losing to his opponent from hosts China in Hangzhou 2023.
"I know what it takes to win a medal at this stage. Only a player, a coach and their team know how much struggle, how much pain we go through. It's really, really hard. It's so stressful. You have to be mentally strong enough to handle a situation like this," he said.
Jay, who hails from Madhya Pradesh's Dewas and is a 2022 National Games gold-medallist, struggled to find his rhythm early on as Kurosaka established an advantage, winning the first two games 5-3 and 4-1.
The Japanese player then moved further ahead by taking the third game 4-1, leaving Jay with little margin for error.
With his medal assured but a place in the final at stake, Jay mounted a strong fightback.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.