By Sachit Subba • Other Sports • Sep 28, 2026 11:31 AM • 969 views
NAGOYA, JAPAN, Japan's women's doubles pair, Momoko Kobori and Ayano Shimizu, beat Nepal's young players on Monday. At the Higashiyama Park Tennis Centre, they secured a 6-0, 6-0 double-bagel win and booked their place in the second round of the 20th Asian Games.
Against the top-ranked players on the home hard courts, 15-year-old Shivali Gurung and 16-year-old Swastika Bista struggled to match the Japanese players' speed and accuracy. Gurung and Bista are among the youngest players in the tournament. Kobori and Shimizu set the pace from the first baseline exchange, punished short returns, controlled the net, and overwhelmed the unseeded Nepali team. Despite brave attempts to challenge the Asian-circuit regulars, the two teenagers won not a single game.
The Japanese duo finished quickly, highlighting the experience gap between the seasoned professionals and the junior players. The one-sided match was a severe test for Gurung and Bista, showing the demands of elite international tennis.
Gurung's campaign at the Asian Games ended with that comprehensive loss. Already eliminated from both the women's singles and the mixed doubles, the 15-year-old talent has had a difficult first experience at the continental tournament. Bista, meanwhile, remains in the competition and can recover quickly for Tuesday's mixed doubles match with fellow national player Nishan Shrestha. The pair will face the Indonesian team of Christopher Rungkat and Aldila Sutjiadi, so they will need an immediate performance improvement.
Although the women's team is going through a steep learning curve, Nepal still has one positive point in the men's section. Abhishek Bastola and Pradip Khadka have secured the country's only win in tennis so far, overcoming early tournament nerves to beat their Mongolian opponents in the first round of the men's doubles. They are now ready for Tuesday's tough match against India's Anirudh Chandrasekar and N. Sriram Balaji. The Indian pair represent a big quality improvement, so the Nepali pair will have to perform perfectly to pull off an upset.
In the men's singles, the draw gave both Bastola and Khadka first-round byes. They now face the second round immediately. Khadka will face Kasidit Samrej of Thailand. Bastola, meanwhile, will face Alexander Shevchenko of Kazakhstan. As the tournament progresses, the Himalayan nation is hoping its men can regain some pride on the Nagoya courts.
