Kumamoto Masters 2025: Lakshya Sen progresses to quarterfinals; Prannoy exits

Indian ace Lakshya Sen advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2025 Kumamoto Masters Super500 tournament in Kumamoto City, Japan, on Thursday.

He defeated Singapore's Jia Heng Jaosn Teh in just a 39-minute straight-game encounter, 21-13, 21-11, to reach his second consecutive quarterfinal on the BWF World Tour.

He will next take on the former world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the last 8 on Friday. 

The match had a very close start with the scores tied on 10-10 just before the mid-game interval, but then Lakshya won 11 out of the next 14 points to take the game.

In the second game, the Indian shuttler started dominating the rallies with his aggressive play from the start and gained a massive lead of 11-4 at half-time.

Last week's Korea masters champion, Jason, couldn't recover from this early deficit and bowed down to Laskhya in straight games.

On the other hand, HS Prannoy faced a second-round exit to Rasmus Gemke of Denmark, losing a straight-game match, 18-21, 15-21 in 46 minutes.

This was Prannoy's first defeat against Gemke in six years, having won their last 4 encounters, taking their head-to-head record to 4-3 in favour of the Indian.