Kumamoto (Japan), Nov 13: India's Lakshya Sen stormed into 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.
The HYLO Open champion defeated Tanaka 21-16, 21-15 to secure his place in the last four. Sen will now face Indonesia's sixth seed Alwi Farhan in the semifinals on Saturday.
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 encounter. After edging past the Indian in a hard-fought opening game, Watanabe maintained his momentum to claim the second game and book his place in the semifinals.
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Earlier, Srikanth had produced an impressive performance to defeat world No. 8 and home favourite Kodai Naraoka in a three-game thriller, advancing to the quarterfinals.
Despite entering the contest with a 0-4 head-to-head record against Naraoka, Srikanth displayed remarkable composure to clinch the opening game 21-15, winning seven consecutive points after trailing 12-14.
The Japanese shuttler fought back strongly to force a decider and took an early lead in the final 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, India's men's pair of Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun, along with the women's duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela, suffered defeats in their respective round-of-16 matches. (With ANI inputs)