Anup Sridhar's dream run at the Singapore Open badminton championships came to an end after he lost to second seed Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark in straight games in the quarter-finals.
The Indian national champion, who upset some top players en route to his last eight appearance at the prestigious five-star event, failed to work his magic on the world No 6 and went down 15-21, 15-21 in 35 minutes.
Sridhar, ranked 43, had disposed of World No 20 Dicky Palyama in the first round before defeating Yi Lu of China and Andrew Smith of England to book a quarter-final berth.
But Jonassen, who has not dropped a game in the tournament so far, proved to be Sridhar's nemesis again, having beaten him twice earlier, including the recent straight games defeat in the quarter-finals of Thomas Cup in Tokyo.
With Sridhar's ouster, the Indian challenge at the US $170,000 event came to an end, as Saina Nehwal and Chetan Anand lost their second and third round battles in the women's and men's singles respectively on Thursday.
Sixteen-year-old Saina lost to seventh seed Petya Nedeltcheva of Bulgaria 21-11, 21-18 in the second round, while 13th seeded Anand lost to Saman Ismail of Malaysia 18-21, 21-11, 15-21 in 49 minutes.
Anand had an easy outing against Jean Michel Lefort of France in the earlier round, wining 21-14, 21-19.
Although he did not have a title to show of for his efforts, Sridhar's performance in the Asian circuit has been creditable. He reached the pre-quarter-finals of the Indonesian Open last week, getting past the formidable Shoji Sato of Japan and Denmark's Bo Rafn, efforts that saw him jump 15 places in the world rankings to 43.
The quarter-final appearance at Singapore would further boost his rankings.
The Indians will now take part in the Malaysian Open.
