Alexander Shevchenko lost in the quarterfinals of the 2026 Asian Games to Japan's Hayato Matsuoka – 6:3, 2:6, 0:6. Zhibek Kulambaeva and Sonya Zhienbaeva also lost in the doubles to Hong Kong's Edis Chong and Hong Kodi Wong – 1:6, 3:6. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

Kazakhstan's second racket started the match well against Japan's seventh racket. After winning the first set 6:3, Shevchenko lost the second 2:6. And completely fell apart in the third. In just 22 minutes, the Kazakh lost three of his serves and three of his opponent's serves. The entire match lasted 1 hour 37 minutes.

The medal match also did not go well for Kulambaeva and Zhienbaeva. Our girls tried very hard, but the superiority of the opponents from Hong Kong was obvious.

🎾 Yulia PUTINTSEVA (Kazakhstan, 82) – ZHANG SHUAI (China, 57) 4:6, 2:6

🎾 Alexander SHEVCHENKO (Kazakhstan, 109) – Hayato MATSUOKA (Japan, 243) 6:3, 2:6, 0:6

🎾 Zhibek KULAMBAEVA (105)/Sonya ZHIENBAEVA (384) (Kazakhstan) – Edis CHONG (59)/HONG KODI WONG (152) (Hong Kong) 1:6, 3:6

Thus, today Kazakhstan lost three matches in a row at the Asian Games tennis tournament. The first fiasco was suffered in the morning by Yulia Putintseva, who lost in the semifinals to China's Zhang Shuai – 4:6, 2:6.

Nevertheless, Putintseva will receive bronze for reaching the 1/2 finals. Today, Yulia and Anna Danilina will play the quarterfinals of the doubles against a strong Chinese pair Jiang Xinyu/Yang Zhaoxuan. After that, Danilina and Shevchenko will play the mixed doubles quarterfinals against Japan's Ena Shibahara and Jay Friend.

The XX Summer Asian Games officially opened on September 19 and will end 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, Kazakhstanis won four gold medals. The champions of the Games were cyclists Rinata Sultanova and Alexey Lutsenko, as well as karatekas Zholaman Bigabyl and Sofya Berultseva. The fifth gold was added to the team's tally by MMA fighter Yerkingali Burkutalin. The sixth – by his teammate in mixed martial arts Kadyrbek Shynbaev. On September 23, Lutsenko became a two-time champion of the 2026 Asian Games. The eighth gold medal was won on September 24 by rowers Vladislav Yakovlev and Ivan Chernukhin in the men's coxless pairs. The ninth gold medal was won on September 27 by our team of epee fencers.

After 11 days of the Games, Kazakhstan was in ninth place in the unofficial medal standings.