Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen suffered a straight-games defeat to Japan's Kodai Naraoka in the men's singles quarter-finals as the curtain came down on India's campaign in the Denmark Open Super 750 tournament, in Odense, on Friday night.
The 2021 World Championships bronze medallist lost 17-21, 12-21 to Naraoka, a bronze medallist at the 2018 Youth Olympics, in a lop-sided contest.
The two played each other thrice, the Japanese winning twice. Interestingly, it was Sen who defeated him in the 2018 Youth Olympics semi-finals, their last meeting.
The 21-year-old from Japan proved a difficult customer on Friday with a dominating performance to stay ahead for most part of the contest.
After opening a 5-2 lead, Naraoka raced to 13-9 at one stage. Sen rallied and grabbed a slender 15-14 lead but Naraoka quickly moved ahead to earn the bragging rights.
Things went further downhill for Sen in the second game as Naraoka led 5-1 before swelling it to 11-3 at the interval.
Naraoka continued to dominate the proceedings to move to 13-6. Sen grabbed the next three points but Naraoka bounced back to tske the game and match.
