Anders Antonsen was knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Super 750 tournament in Singapore on Friday afternoon.
The Danish World No. 3 had a hard time against the young Frenchman Alex Lanier, who is ranked 9th in the world. Antonsen lost in three sets, 21-14, 16-21, 16-21, and is thus out of the tournament.
Antonsen otherwise entered Friday's quarter-finals in great form, and although the 21-year-old Frenchman took a 3-1 lead in the first set with three points in a row, the Dane quickly gained control.
Antonsen took the lead 15-8 and looked like a player well on his way towards taking the first. Suddenly, however, he lost a bit of momentum, and Lanier reduced the deficit to just three points.
Antonsen, on the other hand, quickly regained focus and took the first set relatively easy 21-14.
In the second set, the Dane also had the best start and won the first three points, but after that, Lanier settled into the match well. Antonsen began making a string of unforced errors, and it gave the match the first French lead at 15-14.
From then on, the Frenchman did not look back and succeeded at closing the set at 21-16.
The young Frenchman grew in confidence and caused great problems for Antonsen. Midway through the third set, Lanier had created an 11-8 lead, and the Dane was under a lot of pressure.
Lanier almost seemed carefree towards the end of the set, allowing Antonsen to fight his way back into the match, but in the end Lanier proved to be the strongest as Antonsen's large number of unforced errors proved too costly for him to turn the tide.
In the semi-final, Lanier will face the Indonesian World No. 13, Alwi Farhan.
