Soniia, 28, who received a walkover against Hungary’s Laura Sarosi in her first Group N match yesterday, knew she had to beat Ratchanok to advance to the quarterfinals but she found the Thai a tough nut to crack.

Despite winning the opening game, Soniia, who is making her Olympic debut, succumbed 21-19, 18-21, 10-21 in 61 minutes at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza here.

With the win, 2013 world champion Ratchanok has now beaten world No 35 Soniia five times since 2017.

Soniia, thus, becomes the third representative from the national badminton camp to miss out on the quarterfinals after the mixed doubles and women’s doubles pairs also failed to get past the group stage.

This was also Soniia’s fifth defeat in five outings on the international arena this season.

Meanwhile,  men’s singles ace Lee Zii Jia will resume his medal pursuit as he seeks to qualify for the quarterfinals when he takes on Frenchman Brice Leverdez in a must-win final Group M match at 7.40pm today.