Top Four Teams Ease Into Asian Games Team Quarter-Finals in Japan

The top four seeds in both the men's and women's events coasted into the quarter-final knockout stages of the 2026 Asian Games Teams event today at the Nagoya Kinjo-Futo Arena in Nagoya, Japan.

With the string order set at 2-1-3, Japan's women's team bounced back from yesterday's defeat to fellow 3/4 seeds India by guaranteeing their place in the quarter-finals with a 3/0 victory over China in a must-win tie.

With both Japan and China arriving at the tie following wins over Iran and defeats to India, a victory for either side would put them straight through to the last eight, while a defeat would see them play in the round-robin qualifier.

Nonetheless, it was the home hopefuls who put on a dominant display from start to finish, as No.2 string Akari Midorikawa, world No.6 Satomi Watanabe and Risa Sugimoto defeated their Chinese opponents, Linglu Cheng, Yuning Zhang and Ziyi Liu, in straight games.

After securing their place in the quarter-finals, Japan's No.1 Watanabe said: "As a team we are really pleased and really happy. If we happened to have lost today, we would have had to play in the decider later, which would have been a lot of matches over the past week for myself.

"So, I am glad that we were able to close out and advance, as qualifying this morning was so crucial, as it will allow us to now rest as a team and focus on matches in the quarter-finals. We are really happy and relieved to have won today."

The Japan victory saw them finish in second place in Pool C, behind top-placed India who beat Iran 3/0.

Elsewhere in the women's draw, the defending champions Malaysia continued their pursuit of the title and claimed the top spot in Pool A after defeating Singapore 3/0.

With both nations having qualified for the knockout draw following yesterday's victories over Macau, today's action would determine who would finish top of the pool and secure the more favourable draw.

Malaysia's Aira Azman kicked off the action on Court One, establishing an early lead against Wai Iynn Au Yeong before going on to win 11-9, 11-8, 11-2.

From there, Malaysia would assert full control of the contest as Sivasangari Subramaniam, competing in her first match since her gold medal triumph in the singles event, picked up a straight-game victory over Wai Yhann Au Yeong. With the win and top spot secured, No.3 string Aifa Azman closed out the tie with a 3/0 victory over Singapore's Naisha Singh.

Following the match, Subramaniam said: "We are happy with the results today and being able to top the pool as a team. Today was my first match playing for the team, as last week was a very high stress environment, and obviously that takes out a lot of energy.

"Yesterday the team were able to impress and back me up, so from tomorrow, we know that the intensity will increase, but we have our focus set on bringing another gold medal back for Malaysia."

With all the women's pool stage matches complete in the morning session, the round-robin ties got underway, as China, Pakistan and Macau looked to secure the final two quarter-final spots.

In the afternoon's sessions there was success for the Macau women's team, who would move one step closer to the quarter-finals with a 3/0 win against Pakistan. The tie began with Wai Leng Yeung beating Mahnoor Ali in straight games, before Gigi Yeung came from behind to beat Sana Bahadar 3/1.

With the first two matches secured and Macau within touching distance of the quarter-finals, No.3 string Sierra Chi Cheng Cao completed the 3/0 victory after battling past Pakistan's Sehrish Ali 4-11, 13-11, 15-13, 11-7.

However, despite their strong performance in the opening tie, Macau faced a much tougher battle against China, who won the second round-robin tie of the day 2/1.

And it was China who struck first in the opening match, as Ziyi Liu was able to beat Kwai Chi Liu in straight games, putting the Macau team under immediate pressure. With tensions rising, Macau's No.1 string Gigi Yeung would respond with an impressive 3/0 victory over Yuning Zhang, levelling the scores to one-all and sending it to a dramatic final match.

Moving into the decider, it was China's 14-year-old rising star Ziyuan Yin who held her nerve in a nail-biting five-game contest against Wai Leng Yeung of Macau - winning 11-8, 8-11, 13-11, 10-12, 11-9.

The victory for China means that if they win their final Women's Round Robin Draw match against Pakistan tomorrow, they will confirm a place in the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, in the men's draw, there was still plenty to play for after yesterday's action, with Malaysia, India, Pakistan and Hong Kong securing their places in the quarter-finals with back-to-back wins.

With the top spots confirmed, victory in each of the remaining men's matches would be enough to secure a place in the quarter-finals.

In Pool C, Qatar joined group winners Malaysia in reaching the Asian Games quarter-finals after defeating Thailand 3/0.

The opening contest saw Qatar's No.2 string Ali Al-Darwish beat Thitivuth Yingcharoen in a hard-fought 3/1 battle, before Salem Al-Malki secured the win with a straight-game victory over Ravipun Limphaiboon.

The team's No.3 string, Sayed Azlan Amjad, then completed the 3/0 victory, beating Arkaradet Arkarahirunya 11-7, 11-5, 11-5.

Meanwhile, the Republic of Korea qualified in second place in Pool A after bouncing back from their straight-game defeat to group winners India yesterday with a strong 3/0 victory over China.

And with Pakistan winning Pool B yesterday, Kuwait claimed their first victory in the men's competition and secured their place in the quarter-finals with a 3/0 win over the Philippines.

On Court 5, home crowd favourites Japan, who were still recovering after their brutal match against Hong Kong last night, confirmed their place in the last eight with a flawless performance against Mongolia.

Naoki Hayashi kicked off Japan's disciplined performance with a straight-game victory over Yesun Otgonchimeg, before No.1 string Ryunosuke Tsukue powered past Mongolia's No.1 string Guyen Davaajav. Ren Makino then completed the victory with an 11-1, 11-4, 11-1 win over Anar Danzanjamts.