ASIAN GAMES/Taiwan bags silver medals in men's, women's team soft tennis

Taipei, Sept. 20 (CNA) Taiwan took home silver medals after its men's and women's teams lost to their Japanese opponents in the team soft tennis finals at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Sunday.

On the men's side, doubles pair and brothers Chen Po-yi (陳柏邑) and Chen Yu-hsun (陳郁勲) were swept 5-0 in the final's first match, while singles player Chang Yu-sung (張祐菘) lost 4-1 in match No. 2.

The 2-0 loss to Japan in only 54 minutes mirrored the result of the sides' previous finals match-up at the 2022 Asian Games (played in 2023) in Hangzhou.

In the women's team finals, meanwhile, Taiwan lost 2-1 to a Japanese team that had won gold in the past three Asian Games.

Taiwan's one win in the match-up was by 22-year-old Asian Games newcomer Chiang Min-yu (江旻育), who defeated Ayaka Iwakura 4-1 in the singles portion of the final.

The silver medal finish tied the women's soft tennis team's best-ever performance at the Asian Games.

Team member Lo Shu-ting (羅舒婷), who previously said this Asian Games would be her "last dance" before retirement, told CNA she was proud of the result.

"I think we did great. I don't have any regrets in my career," Lo said, adding that going home with a medal "made it all worthwhile."

Soft tennis

Soft tennis is a variety of tennis that originated in Japan. It is played on a standard tennis court, but with a soft rubber ball that flies slower and bounces lower than a tennis ball.

In the Asian Games, team soft tennis follows a best-of-three matches format, in which the first national team to win two matches wins.

The event sees two teams face off in a specific sequence: a first match (doubles) played in a best-of-nine games format, followed by a second match (singles) played as a best-of-seven.

If necessary, a third match (doubles) is played in a best-of-nine games format to decide the winner.

In terms of scoring, points are counted consecutively 1, 2, 3, 4, with the first player or doubles pair to reach 4 points winning the game. In cases where a game is tied 3-3 (a "deuce"), one side must gain a two-point advantage to win.