India's Kush Kumar, the reigning national junior squash champion who has moved into the senior ranks, has bowed out of the $10,000 Las Vegas Open following his tame defeat in the quarter-finals here.
Kush, who had to qualify to the main round, found the going tough against third seed Chris Gordon of the United States and was thrashed 3-11, 9-11, 5-11 on Friday.
Having had to go through the qualifying rounds, Kumar, a trainee at the Indian squash Academy in Chennai, did well to cross two rounds to reach the main draw as he beat Pakistani Syed Hamzah Bhukari 3-2 and then led 2-0 against New Zealand's Alex Grayson before the latter retired.
In the main draw as a qualifier, Kumar showed his fighting qualities in ousting the eighth seed Alex Ingham of England 11-9, 11-8, 11-7 before coming up against Gordon.