In a sport he stumbled upon almost by pure chance, Jay Meena has etched his name permanently into Indian sporting folklore.
The 24-year-old from Dewas, Madhya Pradesh, secured India’s first-ever Asian Games medal in soft tennis, capping an extraordinary transformation from a cricket-obsessed boy to a pioneering international athlete.
Growing up, Meena had pictured a very different life in sports. Like millions of young boys across India, his primary ambition was cricket. Soft tennis was not even on his radar until he passed a court at Pioneer Public School in his hometown and paused out of sheer curiosity. That brief stop led to a role as a ball boy, where retrieving shots slowly evolved into a deep passion for playing the game.
On Wednesday at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games, that chance encounter culminated in a landmark achievement.
Meena’s path to the podium was defined by sheer resilience. Facing the Philippines’ Sherwin Nuguit in a high-stakes men’s singles quarter-final, the Indian found himself trailing after dropping the opening game 0-4. He fought back to claim the second game 4-2, only to fall behind once more. Refusing to let the match slip away, Meena surged ahead 3-2 before Nuguit dragged the quarter-final into a tense seven-point tie-breaker.
Under immense pressure in the deciding tie-breaker, trailing 3-5 and facing another painful exit, Meena produced a sensational four-point burst to seal a thrilling 4-3 victory (0-4, 4-2, 2-4, 5-3, 2-4, 7-5). The hard-fought win carried him into the semi-finals, guaranteeing a historic bronze medal—India’s first across individual or team events in Asian Games soft tennis.
Meena’s historic run comes after years of steady progression. Having made his international debut in Japan at just 14 years old, he previously reached the quarter-finals at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games. Since then, his national and international profile has risen rapidly: a gold medal at the 2022 National Games in Gujarat, a national championship title in 2025, a bronze medal at the 2024 World Soft Tennis Championships, and four medals at the 2025 Asian Soft Tennis Championships.
Backed by structured support through the Target Asian Games Group (TAGG) initiative, along with foreign exposure trips to South Korea and Japan, Meena’s steady rise reflects a systematic build-up toward international excellence.
While financial support and coaching camps prepared him physically, the cornerstone of this historic milestone remains the improbable beginning: a boy who wanted to hold a cricket bat, picked up soft tennis balls instead, and ultimately delivered an unforgettable moment for Indian sports.
