The home team’s challenge across all events in the Nepal International Badminton Series ended after losing quarter-final matches in the singles and doubles events on Thursday.

Ratnajit Tamang was the only Nepali players to make it to the last eight of the men’s singles event but fell 21-18, 21-17 to Siddharath Thakur of India on Thursday. Joining Thakur in the semi-finals were another Indian Abhishek Yelegar along with Vietnamese duo Duc Phat Le and Cao Cuong Pham.

Yelegar beat Rizwan Azam of Pakistan 21-11, 21-14, Phat Le defeated Tushar Krishna Roy of Bangladesh 21-10, 21-11 and Pham saw off Mohammad Salman Khan of Bangladesh 21-8, 21-5 in the quarter-finals.

Two Nepali shuttlers Sichhya Shrestha and Megha Chand failed to move beyond women’s singles quarter-finals, both losing to Vietnamese opponents on Thursday. Shrestha lost to Thuy Linh Nguyen 21-6. 21-12 and Chand went down to Thi Phuong Thuy Tran 21-8, 21-7. Others to advance to the women’s singles semi-finals were Devi Yunita Indah Sari of Indonesia and Aghaei Hajiagha Soraya of Iran.

Nepali pair of Dipesh Dhami and Ratnajit lost 21-16, 21-18 against Rizwan Azam and Sulehri Kashif Ali of Pakistan in the men’s doubles quarter-finals. Joining Azam and Ali in the last four were three Indian pairs: M Anilkumar Raju/Venkat Gaurav Prasad, Arjun MR/Ramchandran Shlok and Arun George/Saurabh Sharma.

Two Nepali pairs Pooja Shrestha/Nangsal Tamang and Shova Gauchan/Anu Maya Rai also crashed out of women’s doubles quarter-finals. Shrestha/Nangsal lost to top seeds Jakkampudi Meghana/Poorvisha S Ram of India 21-7, 21-5, while Gauchan/Rai lost to the Bangladeshi pair of Aktar Shapla and Alina Sultana 21-7, 21-13.

Three Nepali pairs were in contention to make it to the mixed doubles semi-finals but all three lost their last eight games on Thursday. Tamang Siblings Ratnajit and Nangsal lost to Saurabh Sharma and Anoushka Parikh of India 21-13, 19-21, 21-10, Bijeet Thapa Magar and Sichhya Shrestha went down another Indian pair of Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan 21-8, 21-11, and Bishnu Katwal and Amita Giri went down against Bangladesh pair of Mohammad Salman Khan and Alina Sultana 21-12, 21-14.

Nepal had fielded 21 players in five events-men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles.