Kumamoto Masters: Jun Hao stuns Naraoka to reach semis

National shuttler Leong Jun Hao served the latest upset of the Kumamoto Masters after he beat Kodai Naraoka to reach the semis, while professional pair Tan Wee Kiong-Nur Azriyn Ayub also impressed on Friday.

Beating the second seeded Japanese means the Malaysian has now upset a second high profile opponent after eliminating India's Lakshya Sen in the first round.

As expected, Leong had to dig deep against the Japanese, but came away on top courtesy of a 21-17, 9-21, 21-16 win.

He will now go on to face Jonatan Christie who came through after beating Lee Zii Jia 12-21, 21-18, 21-18.

Leong is joined by men's doubles pair Tan Wee Kiong-Nur Azriyn Ayub, who also dished out a fantastic performance to beat Chinese Taipei pair Chiu Hsiang-chieh-Wang Chi-lin 21-19, 21-19 to advance to the last four.

Tan-Azriyn booked their fourth semi-finals of the year, but Saturday’s win was their biggest win yet as it came in a Super 500 event.

The Malaysians were facing a scratch pairing that have been playing only for a week, but looked to have found the right chemistry after they reached last week’s Korea Masters final.

Tan-Azriyn are veterans of the game at 35 and 31, and they used that experience well to thwart off the challenge of their opponents at the end of both games.

The world number 40 pair scored three straight points to finish the first game, and got the final two points to close the match.

Tan-Azriyn will need to produce an even better performance to beat Japan’s top ranked pair Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi in Saturday’s semis action.

In the mixed doubles, Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai also recorded a straight game 21-16, 21-13 win over Hiroki Midorikawa-Natsu Saito and the third seeds will now battle it out against Thai pair Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Supissara Paewsampran.

Dechapol-Supissara had beaten Hoo Pang Ron-Cheng Su Yin 21-17, 21-16 to reach the semis.