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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 underway at the Kumamoto Prefectural Gymnasium.
Joining him in the last eight is newly crowned HYLO Open champion Lakshya Sen, who registered a comfortable win over his Chinese opponent, according to a press release. 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. 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. Meanwhile, Indias campaign in the doubles events ended, with both pairs suffering defeats. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand were knocked out in the womens doubles round of 16 after going down 21-14, 21-14 to third-seeded Japanese pair Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi. In mens doubles, Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun also exited the competition after losing 21-14, 21-14 to Japans Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi in a 34-minute encounter. (ANI)
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