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India's Lakshya Sen progressed to the semifinals of the BWF Kumamoto Japan Masters Super 500 after registering a comfortable straight-games victory over Japan's Yushi Tanaka in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Lakshya defeated Tanaka 21-16, 21-15 to seal his place in the last four of the tournament. The Indian shuttler will next face Indonesia's sixth seed Alwi Farhan in the semifinals on Saturday. Lakshya will look to overcome his previous record against Farhan, having lost both their earlier encounters. Meanwhile, India's Kidambi Srikanth bowed out of the tournament after suffering a straight-games defeat against Japan's Koki Watanabe in the quarterfinals. Srikanth went down 22-24, 15-21 in a closely contested opening game before Watanabe secured the second game to seal his place in the semifinals. Earliier, Srikanth outplayed World No. 8 and home favourite Kodai Naraoka in a three-game thriller, advancing to the quarter-finals. 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. In doubles, 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. (ANI)
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