Kidambi Srikanth went down fighting to Japan's Kenta Nishimoto 21-19, 14-21, 18-21 in the semi-finals of the Canada Open Super 300 badminton tournament in Calgary on Saturday.
The Indian shuttler made a strong start to the contest, winning the first game 21-19, but his Japanese opponent fought back in the next two to emerge triumphant after 78 minutes.
In the decider, the scores were level at 18 when Nishimoto pounced on a weak return and Srikanth then sprayed wide twice to hand the match to the Japanese.
Nishimoto will meet 20-year-old Canadian and world No.72 Victor Lai, who stunned second seed and world No. 7 Kodai Naraoka 21-19, 16-21, 21-17 in the other semi-final.
On Friday, the former World Championships silver medallist, who reached the final of the Malaysia Masters in May this year, outclassed world No. 6 Chou Tien-Chen 21-18, 21-9 in the quarter-finals, winning in 43 minutes.
S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian, the 2022 World Junior Championships silver medallist, produced a gallant fight before going down to Nishimoto 15-21, 21-5, 17-21 in 79 minutes in the quarter-finals.
In the women's singles, Shriyanshi Valishetty's impressive run came to an end after she lost to Denmark's Amalie Schulz.
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