Men's doubles medal is guaranteed for Ramkumar-Saketh after heartbreak for Nagal and Ankita

 Asian Games 2023: While India's singles attempt came up empty-handed, the men's doubles combo of Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan advanced to the semifinals to guarantee the team its first tennis medal.

Shortly 

• In the men's doubles tournament, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni made it to the semifinals.
• Despite fighting valiantly, Sumit Nagal was defeated by Zhizhen Zhang, the first seed from China.
• In the quarterfinals of women's singles, Ankita Raina was defeated.

After singles players failed to win a medal in Hangzhou for the first time in 21 years, Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan guaranteed India its first tennis medal at the Asian Games in 2023. To get to the men's doubles semifinals, Myneni and Ramkumar defeated China's Yibing Wu and Zhizhen Zhang in straight sets.

The expectations of the country were resting on Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan in the men's doubles event after the top seeds, Rohan Bopanna and Yuki Bhambri, unexpectedly lost in the second round after earning a bye.

On Thursday, a South Korean pair will compete against Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni in the semifinals.

Ramkumar and Myneni's victory over the Chinese team, which included World No. 60 singles star Zhizhen, was served as payback. In the men's singles quarterfinal in Hangzhou on Wednesday, the top seed, who defeated Casper Ruud at the US Open 2023, ruined Sumit Nagal's chances of winning a medal by defeating the Indian in three sets.

It was always going to be a monumental challenge for Nagal to surpass the world number 60 when up against first seed and hometown favourite Zhizhen Zhang.

To his credit, Nagal battled the Chinese for one set before fading in the men's singles quarterfinals, which he lost 7-6(3) 1-6 2-6 after two hours and sixteen minutes.

Men's singles gold medalist Somdev Devvarman had done so in 2010, and in the years that followed Yuki Bhambri (2014, Incheon) and Prajnesh Gunneswaran (2018, Jakarta & Palembang) each took home a bronze.

In the men's singles event at the 2006 Doha Games, Rohan Bopanna and Karan Rastogi were unable to advance to the medal rounds.

Raina, who had just been the second Indian woman to earn a singles bronze medal in 2018, fought valiantly against Haruka Raji of Japan but fell short 6-3, 4-6, 4-6 in a marathon match that lasted two hours and 53 minutes.

In the third and second rounds of the singles tournament, respectively, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Rutuja Bhosale have already been eliminated.