Teenager Ai Fukuhara lost to Asami Suemasu 4-3 in the sixth round of the women's singles at the national table tennis championships Saturday, going out at the same stage for the second straight year.
But the 14-year-old, who was Japan's youngest ever Asian Games athlete this year, stayed on course for back-to-back junior titles after cruising through to the quarterfinals at Tokyo Budokan.
The top seed in the women's singles, Aya Umemura, safely advanced to the last eight along with former world champion Chire Koyama.