Srikanth stuns Naraoka to reach Kumamoto Masters quarter-finals; Lakshya Sen also through

Kidambi Srikanth knocked out the home favourite and fifth seed Kodai Naraoka 21-15, 11-21, 21-18 on Thursday, 12 November, and is into the last eight of the Kumamoto Masters Japan. The round-of-16 contest in Kumamoto ran close to an hour. Srikanth had lost all four earlier matches against Naraoka; this was his first victory over him.

The gap in the rankings was wide. Naraoka sits eighth in the world; Srikanth, a former world No. 1, is ranked 31st. He took the first game with room to spare, lost the second heavily as the home player hit back, and then held on through a tight finish in the decider.

From Ravulapalem to the last eight

Srikanth was born in Ravulapalem in Andhra Pradesh and trained under Pullela Gopichand. He became world No. 1 in April 2018 and won silver at the 2021 World Championships in Huelva.

Lakshya Sen, seeded eighth, also made the last eight, beating Dong Tianyao of China 21-8, 21-14. He came to Japan as the reigning Hylo Open champion, having taken the title in Saarbrücken.

Doubles pairs go out

The doubles players had a harder day. Treesa Jolly and Hyderabad’s Gayatri Gopichand went down 14-21, 14-21 to the third-seeded Japanese pair Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi.

Srikanth and Lakshya both play their quarter-finals on Friday.