“Without him I would not have been where I am… I was devastated (when I came to know about Engel’s demise). It was really hard for me to recover,” Diya told from Toyota.

Her family and other coaches helped the 23-year-old come to terms with the loss. On Friday, she paid rich tribute to Engel with the Asian Games medal.

“He would have wanted that I do not dwell on it (his death). This medal is for him; it would have made him happy,” Diya said.

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Before she learnt the tragic news, Diya had her poor recent form and the ghost of Olympics past to contend with. Early exits at the United States Smash, Europe Smash and WTT Star Contender Almaty had seemingly undone a strong start to 2026 for Diya-Manush, going into the Asiad. Mixed doubles was Diya’s best bet, and after heartbreakingly missing the Paris Olympics cut due to a foot injury, she sought redemption at the continental event.

The main challenge was finding time to practise together amid a gruelling calendar. With no India camp scheduled, Manush landed up in Mumbai — Diya’s hometown — earlier this month. They trained at the Khar Gymkhana for four days to get in sync before leaving for Japan.

When Manush was not there, Diya honed her serve and return of serve solo for months. “Doubles is not only about you converting the points, but also creating opportunities for your partner to close out the points. And typically in mixed doubles, the greater chance is for the men’s player to do that. Diya has to play her role of creating that opportunity for Manush,” her father Parag explained.

This strategy has worked well for the world No. 8 duo in the past, as evidenced by their global feats. They were the first Indian pair to enter a WTT Star Contender, in Brazil, and are the only Indians to have qualified for the season-ending WTT Finals (Hong Kong 2025).

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The strategy also worked well in the initial two rounds of the Asian Games. Yet, Manush and Diya flipped it around in the quarterfinal.

They were up against Hong Kong’s Wong Chung Ting and Doo Hoi Kem — a pair that had beaten them thrice in a row. The last two losses had been especially narrow, with Manush and Diya conceding the first two games and then going down fighting. They had to do the early running this time.

“We thoroughly studied the (previous) match alongside national head coach Massimo (Constantini) and created some new strategies,” Manush told this paper.

“We were aggressive in our body language and in our play,” Diya said. “(There was) controlled aggression from my end and slightly more aggressive from Diya,” Manush specified.

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The new plan worked. The Indians dominated from the get go, finishing with a scoreline of 11-6, 13-15, 11-9, 11-5 against the world No. 4 combine. Manush and Diya sealed the country’s second mixed doubles Asiad podium after Achanta Sharath Kamal-Manika Batra in 2018, and fourth overall.

Long-held promise

While Diya has overcome multiple setbacks, Manush has built on his long-held promise. A hyperactive kid as per mother Reena, Manush picked up the paddle in fourth standard but already possessed “extraordinary power”.

“That’s why I took all decisions very fast in his case. I taught him all the strokes in six months and told his father to get him an imported bat,” his first coach Shailesh Gosain recalled.

There was no looking back for the left-hander, who is now the nation’s top-ranked singles player and the fulcrum of its men’s doubles and mixed doubles fortunes.

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Manush was seeded second alongside Manav in Aichi-Nagoya and they were the contingent’s strongest TT medal hopes on paper. These hopes were dashed straight away in a 3-1 defeat to Japan’s tricky scratch-pair opponents Tomokazu Harimoto and Shinuzoka Hiroto. But Manush made the most of a relatively favourable draw earlier in mixed doubles.

He had to play four matches on Friday, including a singles clash, and the fatigue perhaps got to him in the mixed doubles semifinal which Manush and Diya lost in straight games to Olympic gold medallists Wang Chuqin-Sun Yingsha.

“I was (there for) 12 hours at the hall as ship was 75 minutes away. I rested in the hall, definitely my body wasn’t as fresh but not to complain, we played against the best of the world,” Manush said.

Him and Diya will face many such challenges in the future. They see the momentous medal not just as a milestone, but as the beginning of “something big for Indian table tennis”. As Diya put it, “I don’t want to get satisfied with this result, I want to aim higher. This is just a tick on a list; the goal is Olympics.”