Former world number one Kidambi Srikanth pulled off one of the biggest wins of his season on Thursday, stunning world No. 8 and defending champion Kodai Naraoka of Japan 21-15, 11-21, 21-18 in a one-hour contest to reach the men's singles quarterfinals of the Kumamoto Masters Japan 2026, RevSportz reported.

Source: RevSportz

It was Srikanth's first win over Naraoka in five meetings on the tour, in their first clash in more than two years, The Bridge reported. Naraoka saved two match points in the deciding game before Srikanth closed out the match.

Source: The Bridge

21-15, 11-21, 21-18Srikanth beat Naraoka (world No. 8)
21-8, 21-14Lakshya beat Dong Tianyao
27 minDuration of Lakshya's win

Lakshya Sen's passage was far more comfortable. The eighth seed defeated China's Dong Tianyao 21-8, 21-14 in just 27 minutes to book his quarterfinal spot and keep alive his hopes of back-to-back tour titles after his Hylo Open triumph, according to RevSportz.

Source: RevSportz

India's doubles pairs, however, exited in the round of 16. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost 14-21, 14-21 to Japan's third seeds Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi, while Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun went down 14-21, 14-21 to Japan's Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi, RevSportz reported.

What next

In Friday's quarterfinals, Srikanth will face Japan's Koki Watanabe, against whom he holds a 2-0 head-to-head lead, while Lakshya will meet Japan's world No. 17 Yushi Tanaka. The Kumamoto Masters is a BWF Super 500 tournament.