In the tennis tournament at the 2026 Asian Games, Alexander Shevchenko lost in the singles quarterfinals to Japan's Hayato Matsuoka 6-3, 2-6, 0-6, while Zhibek Kulambayeva and Sonya Zhiyenbayeva fell in the doubles quarterfinals to Hong Kong's Eudice Chong and Hong Cody Wong 1-6, 3-6, according to infohub.kz.
Kazakhstan's No. 2 player started confidently against Japan's No. 7, taking the first set 6-3. But Shevchenko dropped the second 2-6 and completely fell apart in the third. In just 22 minutes, the Kazakh lost three of his own service games and three of his opponent's. The entire match lasted 1 hour and 37 minutes.
The medal match also did not go well for Kulambayeva and Zhiyenbayeva. The Kazakh duo tried hard, but the superiority of their Hong Kong opponents was obvious.
ASIAN GAMES 2026. Tennis. October 1. Women's singles. Semifinals: Yulia PUTINTSEVA (Kazakhstan, 82) – ZHANG SHUAI (China, 57) 4-6, 2-6. Men's singles. Quarterfinals: Alexander SHEVCHENKO (Kazakhstan, 109) – Hayato MATSUOKA (Japan, 243) 6-3, 2-6, 0-6. Women's doubles. Quarterfinals: Zhibek KULAMBAYEVA (105)/Sonya ZHIYENBAYEVA (384) (Kazakhstan) – Eudice CHONG (59)/HONG CODY WONG (152) (Hong Kong) 1-6, 3-6.
Thus, today Kazakhstan lost three consecutive matches in the Asian Games tennis tournament. The first defeat came in the morning when Yulia Putintseva lost in the semifinals to China's Zhang Shuai 4-6, 2-6.
Nevertheless, Putintseva will receive bronze for reaching the semifinals. Today, Yulia and Anna Danilina will play their doubles quarterfinal against the strong Chinese pair Jiang Xinyu/Yang Zhaoxuan. After that, Danilina and Shevchenko will play their mixed doubles quarterfinal against Japan's Ena Shibahara and Jay Friend.
The 20th Summer Asian Games officially opened on September 19 and will close on October 4. Athletes from 45 countries are competing for 460 sets of medals. Kazakhstan's team at the 2026 Asian Games includes 558 athletes in 35 sports.
On the first day of the Games, Kazakhstan won four gold medals. Cyclists Rinata Sultanova and Alexey Lutsenko became champions, as did karatekas Zholaman Bigabyl and Sofya Berultseva. The fifth gold was added by MMA fighter Yerkingali Burkutalin. The sixth by his teammate in mixed martial arts, Kadyrbek Shynbayev. On September 23, Lutsenko became a two-time champion of the 2026 Asian Games. The eighth gold was won on September 24 by rowers Vladislav Yakovlev and Ivan Chernukhin in the men's coxless pairs. The ninth gold was claimed on September 27 by the Kazakh epee fencing team.
After 11 days of the Games, Kazakhstan was in ninth place in the unofficial medal standings.