Kumamoto Masters: Srikanth beats Naraoka to reach quarterfinals

Indian men's singles player Kidambi Srikanth, who finished runner-up at the US Open earlier this year, registered a major win by defeating fifth seed Kodai Naraoka in the second round of the Kumamoto Masters. Naraoka, who won the silver medal at the 2026 World Championships, was also the defending champion.

After beating Denmark's Rasmus Gemke 18-21, 21-16, 24-22 in a close first-round match on Wednesday, Srikanth put up another strong performance to defeat Naraoka 21-15, 11-21, 21-18. The Indian entered the match as the underdog, having lost all four of his previous meetings with the Japanese shuttler.

Their last meeting took place at the 2024 Singapore Open, where Naraoka had beaten Srikanth in straight games. However, the Indian finally ended his losing run against the Japanese player with this victory, while also bringing Naraoka's title defence at the Kumamoto Masters to an end.

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Srikanth will now face Japan's Koki Watanabe in the quarterfinals on Friday (Nov 13).

Meanwhile, eighth seed Lakshya Sen also booked his place in the quarterfinals after securing a comfortable 21-8, 21-14 win over China's Dong Tian Yao in just 35 minutes. He will next face Japan's Yushi Tanaka.

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However, India's campaign in the doubles events suffered a setback as the men's pair of Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun and the women's duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela both suffered defeats in their respective Round of 16 matches.