World No.6 Ratchanok Intanon crashed out to top-ranked Tai Tzu-ying, losing 17-21, 12-21 in the women's singles quarter-finals of the US$325,000 (approximately 10.8 million baht) French Open Superseries tournament on Friday night.
The 22-year-old Thai, who was seeded eighth this week, was unable to repeat her spirited performance against the top-seeded Taiwanese in the semi-finals of the Denmark Open last Saturday and succumbed to defeat in just 32 minutes at Stade Pierre de Coubertain in Paris.
There were no Thai players left in the tournament after a makeshift pairing of Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Puttita Supajirakul fell to Denmark's Mathias Christiansen and Christinna Pedersen 21-13, 13-21, 19-21 in the last-eight clash of the mixed doubles event.
Dechapol, who was playing in Paris without his regular partner Sapsiree Taerattanachai, and Puttita had earlier managed to pull off an upset against Indonesian third seeds Praveen Jordan an Jessica Pugh in the second round.
Tai was scheduled to play seventh seed He Bingjiao in the semi-finals late last night. The Chinese defeated South Korea's Lee Jang-Mi 25-23, 21-10 on Friday.
The other last-four clash was between fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi and No.2 seed PV Sindhu.
Japan's Yamaguchi moved into the semis after beating third seed Sung Ji-Hyun of South Korea 17-21, 21-15, 23-21. Sindhu of India knocked out China's Chen Yufei 21-14, 21-14 in the other quarter-final.
Ratchanok will now take a couple of weeks' break and then head to Fuzhou to take part in the China Open next month. The $700,000 (23.3 million baht) BWF Superseries Premier event will take place between Nov 14-19 at Haixia Olympic Sports Centre.
Ratchanok claimed her third title of the year last Sunday when she rallied from a game down to defeat defending champion Yamaguchi in the final in Odense. It was her first Superseries win in 18 months.
