Asian Games Schedule Criticism
HS Prannoy criticizes the Asian Games schedule after athletes play twice in one day.
Anonymous
HS Prannoy criticized the 2026 Asian Games badminton schedule after Ayush Shetty and Unnati Hooda were required to play twice in one day, with only a few hours between their morning matches and evening Round of 16 fixtures. He said the tight turnaround, following a team-event medal ceremony that ran late, leaves players too little time to recover and is unreasonable for a major tournament. Ayush advanced with a quick straight-games win over Kazakhstan’s Makhsut Tajibullayev, while Unnati earned a hard-fought three-game victory over Malaysia’s Wong Ling Ching. Both faced further matches that evening, raising concerns about the physical and mental demands of the schedule.
Key Points
1
Unnati Hooda’s next opponent was Indonesia’s world No. 6 Putri Kusuma Wardani, who had won their only previous meeting at the 2025 Hylo Open.
2
PV Sindhu also advanced, beating Chinese Taipei’s Chiu Pin-chian 21-19, 21-14; she was scheduled to face local favourite and world No. 7 Tomoka Miyazaki later that day.
3
India’s campaign also suffered a setback when Lakshya Sen lost in the second round to former world champion Loh Kean Yew.
4
In the deciding game against Wong Ling Ching, Unnati reached two match points at 20-18; after Wong saved the first, a wide cross-court shot on the next rally gave Unnati the win.
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