Four Asian Games, One Historic Milestone for Abhishek Bastola
Nepal’s Abhishek Bastola has reached a major career milestone by competing at his fourth consecutive Asian Games, becoming the first Nepali tennis player reported to achieve the feat. He also made a winning start at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, partnering with Pradip Khadka to defeat a Mongolian pair in a dramatic men’s doubles opener.
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Kathmandu, September 28, 2026
Four Asian Games, One Journey
Nepali tennis player Abhishek Bastola is competing at his fourth consecutive Asian Games at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, where he opened his campaign on September 27, 2026, with a men’s doubles victory alongside Pradip Khadka. The appearance is significant because Bastola has represented Nepal at every Asian Games since making his debut as a 17-year-old at Incheon 2014, extending a journey that has now covered four editions of Asia’s biggest multi-sport competition.
From Incheon to Nagoya
Bastola’s Asian Games journey began at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games in South Korea, where records confirm he represented Nepal in tennis at just 17. He returned for the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games, qualified as Nepal’s No. 1 for the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games held in 2023, and is now representing the country at Aichi-Nagoya 2026.
His four consecutive appearances underline his longevity in Nepali tennis. Reports ahead of the current Games identified Nagoya as Bastola’s fourth straight Asian Games, while Pradip Khadka is competing in his second.
Winning Start With Pradip Khadka
Bastola began his fourth Asian Games with a victory alongside Pradip Khadka in the men’s doubles competition at the Nagoya City Higashiyama Park Tennis Centre on Sunday.
The Nepali pair defeated Mongolia’s Badrakh Munkhbaatar and Zolbadar Urnukh in a match that went to a deciding tiebreak. Multiple reports confirm Nepal won the contest and advanced to the second round, although reports differ on the order of the first two set scores; the deciding tiebreak was 14–12.
A Decade Representing Nepal
Bastola’s Asian Games milestone comes after more than a decade of representing Nepal internationally. Beyond the Asian Games, he has played an important role in Nepal’s Davis Cup campaign and has continued competing internationally while pursuing higher-level tennis opportunities abroad.
His Asian Games record now stretches from Incheon 2014 to Aichi-Nagoya 2026, making his latest appearance more than another tournament entry—it represents over a decade of continuity at the continental level.
What Comes Next
The opening doubles victory sent Bastola and Khadka into the second round, where the draw placed them against India’s top-seeded doubles pair of N. Sriram Balaji and Anirudh Chandrasekar. The tennis competition at the 20th Asian Games runs from September 27 to October 3.
For Bastola, however, Nagoya has already added another chapter to his career: four consecutive Asian Games appearances, beginning as a teenager in Incheon and continuing 12 years later in Japan.
Published 1 hour ago in Sports