Ireland's Nhat Nguyen bowed out of the Olympics after losing a three-game thriller against 10th seed Wang Tzu-wei.
Having won his opening Group F match on Monday, Nguyen needed another victory to clinch a quarter-final place.
The 21-year-old struggled to settle in the opening game, losing 21-12, but then rallied in the second to edge a see-saw battle 21-18 and set up a decider.
The third game was locked at 11-11 when four big smashes by Wang swung the game in his favour, the highly-rated Chinese Taipei player powering to a 21-12 success.
A battling performance from Ireland's Nhat Nguyen as he pushes Tzu-Wei Wang all the way, but the Taiwanese number 10 seed wins their match 21-12, 18-21, 21-12#Olympics #Tokyo2020 #RTESport
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) July 28, 2021
📺 Watch live - https://t.co/YnjU8JEg9Q…
📱 Updates - https://t.co/RB2R16yhlb… pic.twitter.com/G8OWklnnqJ
"This is the level I want to compete at in the future, at the next couple of Olympics when I'm physically stronger, more experienced, just more rounded and developed," Nguyen told RTÉ Sport.
"I will definitely use this experience and game to move on and to improve.
"Throughout the third set I just wanted to fight for all the support I'd had. It’s overwhelming, the support that I’ve had in the last couple of weeks.
"This is only the start. I will keep moving on and pushing forward."
"I think Nhat can be very proud of his performance today' - @chloenmagee said her fellow Irish badminton Olympian Nhat Nguyen can be proud of his performance but may look back on his match with TYzu-Wei Wang with some regret#Tokyo2020
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) July 28, 2021
📱 Updates - https://t.co/RB2R16yhlb… pic.twitter.com/5YFN8EiGw1
Three-time Olympian Chloe Magee said Nguyen has a bright future and proved he belongs at this level.
"From the start of the third set he really went for it," said Magee, working as an analyst on RTÉ Sport's coverage.
"That’s what I love to see. Whenever Nhat got up he went for his shot. His attack was working and he really had Wang under pressure.
"I thought if he kept going like that he would have really caused Wang problems.
"Wang missed a few big shots at the end of the second set, Nhat’s defence was very good and he thought,''I’ll go with that again'. It wasn’t enough.
"As a top-10 player, Wang had more. We knew he had that next level and he showed that from 11-11.
"That’s where Nhat wants to be, facing the top 20 players in the world. He has showed he can play with these players.
"Now he needs to find ways to beat them and not just be happy to try and wait for mistakes.
"He has the shots, his drops are fantastic. He needs to show that for three sets."
