Jay Meena Advances to Soft Tennis Quarters as Indian Women Dominate Cricket

Jay Meena needed no settling-in period. No feeling-out phase, no nervy exchanges. The Indian soft tennis player walked onto court on Tuesday and tore through Pakistan’s Arain Hussain 4-0 in Group D at the Asian Games, booking his place in the quarterfinals with ruthless efficiency.

Every game followed the same pattern: Meena on the front foot, dictating rallies, Hussain scrambling. The scoreline reflected the gulf. It was controlled aggression from the Indian, the kind of performance that suggests he is not in this draw just to make up the numbers.

The reward is a last-eight clash on Wednesday against the Philippines’ Sherwin Nuguit. The stakes now rise sharply. Nuguit brings a different set of questions, a more complete game, and far greater resistance than Hussain managed. Meena, though, carries something just as valuable into that contest: momentum and the confidence that comes with not dropping a single game.

While Meena advanced on the soft tennis courts, another Indian story was unfolding in far more familiar colours — blue jerseys, white ball, and a batting lineup in full command.

Smriti Mandhana set the tone with the bat for the Indian women’s cricket team, and she did it with authority. Her 79 was not just a big score; it was an innings that broke Sri Lanka’s resolve early. Timing came easily, gaps opened up, and India built their total with a calm that made 216/3 look inevitable rather than ambitious.

Sri Lanka never quite looked comfortable. From the outset, they carried the air of a side under pressure, chasing not just a target but the occasion itself. India sensed that hesitation and pressed harder.

Then the bowlers took over.

Deepti Sharma led a relentless attack that never allowed Sri Lanka to breathe. She finished with a miserly economy rate of 1.50, squeezing the chase until it collapsed. Wickets fell, dot balls piled up, and the scoreboard became a burden Sri Lanka simply could not lift.

All out for 69. A 147-run hammering.

It was the kind of clinical, one-sided performance that sends a message across a tournament: India are not just competing; they are dictating terms.

Between Meena’s surge into the soft tennis quarterfinals and the women’s cricket team’s ruthless dismantling of Sri Lanka, India’s campaign carried the look of a contingent hitting its stride — and not inclined to slow down.