Rajiv Ouseph’s All England Open campaign ended with defeat to Japan’s Sho Sasaki in Friday’s quarter-final.
Feltham’s world number 22 had dumped out third seed Son Wan Ho in the first round on Wednesday, and then edged past H. S. Prannoy of India in round two.
But Sasaki, ranked six places above Ouseph, inflicted a first defeat of 2015 on the Englishman, winning 21-14 21-11.
Both of Ouseph’s first two matches had gone the distance, but this late night clash – which didn’t start until 10.40pm – was a fair bit briefer.
Sasaki, 32, a quarter-finalist at the London 2012 Olympics, was always ahead throughout the opening game, holding leads of 7-2 and 12-5 before comfortably seeing it out at the first attempt.
Ouseph gave him more of a test in game two, with both players in front at various points before they became locked at 8-8.
That’s when Sasaki dramatically made his move. At 10-9, he won five straight points to take a grip on the match and then took six in a row to complete the job.
Ouseph’s next tournament is the Swiss Open in Basel, where he will be the sixth seed.
He meets Zulfadli Zulkiffli of Malaysia in the first round on Tuesday evening.
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This post was last modified on 07/03/2015