India’s Priyanshu Rajawat stood on the verge of the largest breakthrough of his younger badminton profession on Saturday. The 21-year-old entered the lads’s singles ultimate on the $240,000 Orleans Masters in France with a straight video games semi-final victory. Rajawat dominated Eire’s Nhat Nguyen for a 21-12, 21-9 victory in 44 minutes on the Palais des Sports activities.
It has been an unimaginable week for Rajawat, who was a part of India’s victorious Thomas Cup squad in Bangkok final yr, although he didn’t play. The world No 58 wasn’t even in the primary draw initially and was promoted from the reserve listing after seven gamers withdrew from the Tremendous 300 match.
After defeating buddy and compatriot Kiran George in straight video games within the first spherical, Rajawat brought about the match’s largest upset when he beat high seed and world No 12 Kenta Nishimoto of Japan within the second spherical to enter the final eight. It was an enormous win for Rajawat, particularly contemplating Nishimoto’s type after successful the Spain Masters in Madrid final week.
Rajawat then defeated Yu Jen Chi of Chinese language Taipei to enter the semi-finals. He’s but to drop a sport within the match, which has been upgraded after being a Tremendous 100 occasion till final yr.
The participant has steadily gone up the rankings chart, from world No 393 in October 2019. He broke into the highest 300 by the primary week of January 2020 and entered the highest 200 by October 2021. Rajawat entered the highest 100 in January 2022 earlier than attaining his best-ever rating of 47 in January this yr. The present run in France is anticipated to push him into the highest 40.
Within the ultimate on Sunday, Rajawat will face one other upcoming expertise, Magnus Johannesen of Denmark, who’s ranked 9 spots above him. Each are aiming to win their first title on the BWF World Tour. Rajawat additionally reached the ultimate of the 2022 Odisha Open the place he misplaced to George in three video games. Johannesen, who was additionally promoted from the reserve listing, shall be enjoying in his first ultimate on the tour.