Srikanth beats world No. 8 Naraoka; Lakshya advances at Japan Masters

Kumamoto: Former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth outplayed World No. 8 and home favourite Kodai Naraoka in a three-game thriller, advancing to the quarter-finals of the Japan Masters, a BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament here at the Kumamoto Prefectural Gymnasium.

Joining Srikanth in the last eight is newly crowned Hylo Open champion Lakshya Sen, who registered a comfortable win over his Chinese opponent.

Despite entering the match with a 0-4 head-to-head record against Naraoka, Srikanth showed great composure to take the opening game 21-15, winning seven consecutive points after trailing 12-14.

The Japanese shuttler fought back strongly to force a decider and held the early advantage in the last game. However, Srikanth kept his nerve, drew level at 7-7 and regained control to close out the match 21-18 in 60 minutes.

This win was not Srikanth’s only big one of the season. He beat Paris 2024 bronze medallist Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia en route to a runner-up finish at the US Open in June and stunned then world No. 9 Victor Lai of Canada to reach the China Masters Super 750 quarter-finals in September.

Srikanth will next face another Japanese opponent, World No. 15 Koki Watanabe, in the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, eighth seed Lakshya Sen continued his strong run with a dominant 21-8, 21-14 victory over China's Dong Tian Yao in 35 minutes. He will take on Japan's Yushi Tanaka for a place in the semi-finals.

India’s doubles challenge, however, came to an end on Thursday as men's doubles pair Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun, along with women's doubles duo Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela, lost their respective Round of 16 matches.

Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun also bowed out after losing 21-14, 21-14 to Japan’s Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi in 34 minutes, while World Championships bronze medallists Treesa and Gayatri lost 21-14, 21-14 to third seeds Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi of Japan in the women’s doubles round of 16.

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