New Delhi, Nov 12: Veteran shuttler Kidambi Srikanth defeated World No. 8 and home favourite Kodai Naraoka in a three-game thriller to enter the quarter-finals of the Japan Masters, a BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament being held at the Kumamoto Prefectural Gymnasium.

Before the match, the two shuttlers had faced each other four times, with Naraoka emerging victorious on every occasion. However, Srikanth showed great composure to win seven consecutive points and take the opening game 21-15.

The Japanese shuttler fought back strongly to force a decider and held an early advantage in the final game. However, Srikanth kept his nerve, levelled the score at 7-7 and regained momentum to seal the match 21-18. Srikanth will next face World No. 15 Koki Watanabe in the quarter-finals.

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India will have another representative in the quarter-finals, with newly crowned HYLO Open champion Lakshya Sen advancing to the last eight after a comfortable win over China's Dong Tian Yao.

Lakshya dominated his Chinese opponent, registering a commanding 21-8, 21-14 victory in just 35 minutes. He will take on Japan's Yushi Tanaka for a place in the semi-finals. Meanwhile, India's campaign in the doubles events came to an end, with both pairs suffering defeats.

Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand were knocked out in the women's doubles round of 16 after going down 14-21, 14-21 to the third-seeded Japanese pair of Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi.

In men's doubles, Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun also exited the competition after losing 14-21, 14-21 to Japan's Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi in a 34-minute encounter. (With ANI inputs)