Kenta Nishimoto and Kodai Naraoka ensured it would be an all-Japanese men\u2019s singles final in Kumamoto with the duo making the finals at the Japan Masters in contrasting styles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nishimoto was forced to go the distance by India\u2019s Lakshya Sen in his semi-finals, before prevailing 21-19, 14-21, 21-12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 31-year-old veteran battled for 77-minutes before getting the better of Lakshya, the Commonwealth Games champion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Naraoka, meanwhile, had a much easier time in his 21-11, 21-12 defeat of Chinese Taipei\u2019s Wang Tzu Wei.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final will see two Japanese players, who ironically, have met only once before, at the China Masters in 2023. It was Naraoka who emerged victorious that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The match that had the entire arena at their seats edge was the women\u2019s doubles encounter between Malaysian top seeds Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan against home favourites Yuki Fukushima-Mayu Matsumoto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The riveting match that could have gone either way was eventually won by the the Malaysian pair 24-22, 23-21 in grueling match that lasted 57 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was sweet revenge, although it took all their might, for Pearly-Thinaah, who were beaten by Fukushima-Matsumoto in the first round of the same tournament last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They will play another Japanese pair, Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi, in the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Japanese duo had earlier shocked second seeds Kim Hye-jong-Kong Hee-yong of Korea 21-16, 21-11 in the other semi-final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
QUARTER-FINAL RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Men\u2019s Singles: <\/strong>Kenta Nishimoto (Jpn) bt Lakshya Sen (Ind) 21-19, 14-21, 21-12; Kodai Noraka (Jpn) bt Wang Tzu Wei (Tpe) 21-11, 21-12<\/p>\n\n\n\n Men\u2019s Doubles: <\/strong>Hiroki Midorikawa-Kyohei Yamashita (Jpn) bt Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin (Mas) 21-12, 21-17; Kim Won Ho-Seo Seung Jae (Kor) bt Chiu Hsiang Chieh-Wang Chih Lin (Tpe) 21-19, 21-19<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women\u2019s Singles: <\/strong>Gregoria Mariska Tunjung (Ina) bt Chiu Pin-chian (Tpe) 21-16, 21-14; Ratchanok Intanon (Tha) bt Nozomi Okuhara (Jpn) 21-18, 10-21, 21-14<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women\u2019s Doubles: <\/strong>Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi (Jpn) bt Kim Hye Jeong-Kong Hee Yong (Kor) 21-16, 21-11; Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan (Mas) bt Yuki Fukushima-Mayu Matsumoto (Jpn) 24-22, 23-21<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mixed Doubles: <\/strong>Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Supissara Paewampran (Tha) bt Akira Koga-Misaki Matsutomo (Jpn) 21-19, 21-12; Thom Gicquel-Delphine Delrue (Fra) bt Ye Hong Wei-Nicole Gonzales Chan (Tpe) 21-17, 21-12<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kenta Nishimoto and Kodai Naraoka ensured it would be an all-Japanese men\u2019s singles final in Kumamoto with the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[75],"class_list":["post-6090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-badminton"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t