Rajawat priyanshu

Kallang [Singapore], June 6 (ANI): Orleans Masters champion Priyanshu Rajawat started his Singapore Open 2023 campaign with a win over world no. 15 Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan in straight games 21-12, 21-15 to enter the Round of 16 in Singapore on Tuesday. The Indian shuttler will face Japan’s Kodai Naraoka in a pre-quarters encounter on Thursday. Last month, Priyanshu clinched his first-ever tour title by beating Magnus Johannesen of Denmark in the final of the Orleans Masters 2023 in France on Sunday. Twenty-one-year-old Priyanshu got the better of the Dane 21-15, 19-21, 21-16 in a thrilling men’s singles final that lasted an hour and eight minutes. This was the first BWF Super 300 title for Priyanshu who was also the youngest team member of the Indian badminton team that won the historic 2022 Thomas Cup in Bangkok, last year. Priyanshu started the final in a dominating fashion without providing any opportunity for a comeback to Magnus in the first game. The Indian shuttler was leading 11-8 at the halfway stage of the opening game and encashed upon the lead to take the first game. The second game started off close with Magnus maintaining the lead, despite Priyanshu making a strong comeback (17-17) and losing the second game only to win the third game, match and title. “I am very happy. This is a really big moment for me, winning Orleans Masters, my first-ever BWF World Tour Super 300 title. Also, I would like to thank everyone back home for supporting me,” said the World No...

History will record Nearly one year on from that incredible moment, Rajawat stood on the top of the podium again. On Sunday, That it has taken till the second week of April for an Indian shuttler to win a singles title on the BWF World Tour in 2023 is a bit of a surprise given how well 2022 had started. But Rajawat topping the field at an event to become the first from the country to win on tour this year is a cause for optimism as it’s his first great step towards the big time. “A lot has changed since the Thomas Cup,” Rajawat had said at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune during the Scroll was present. “Game-wise, watching the likes of Viktor Axelsen and the others, how they play their matches, how they’re involved in teams. “The senior players guided us very well. The team spirit was very good, there was like a brotherhood among us and everyone was looking after each other. We were preparing well, sleeping on time, and then playing the next day.” On Sunday in France, he overcame a stiff challenge from a fellow 21-year-old in Denmark’s Magnus Johannesen. “Earlier I had no patience. I used to get angry very quickly,” Rajawat, ranked 58, had said in Pune. “Now I play aaram, aaram se (calmly), with patience. The speed has improved, the smash power has increased because those are the things the coaches have been working on. There was a lot of gym work, strength exercises. My strong point is the smash, so to improve the strength I had to do gym work. On court, spending hour ...

It might seem odd that Indian badminton, with so many big names playing currently, has not had a moment to celebrate in 2023 before Sunday. Priyanshu Rajawat , an emerging star, corrected that anomaly at the Orleans Masters in France with a win over Magnus Johannesen of Denmark in the decider. It was his maiden World Tour title in his first appearance in the final. Priyanshu, who has long been touted as a promising talent in the national circuit and was part of India’s Thomas Cup-winning squad last year, had not won anything bigger than an international series-level title before, with the last coming in September 2022 at the India Chattisgarh International Challenge. But by winning all his matches in straight games en route to the Orleans Masters final, including a rout of top seed Kenta Nishimoto in the pre-quarterfinal, he has rightfully announced his arrival on the international stage. Priyanshu, ranked 58th in the world, demonstrated flawless attack in all his five matches. With his improved stamina and strength, he now engages his opponents in longer rallies before going for the kill. In his trademark style, he combined his foot speed with his quick hands to beat Nishimoto. In the semifinal, he outplayed a higher-ranked Nhat Nguyen, world no. 35, of Ireland in straight games. He needed just 44 minutes to seal his place in the summit clash. The high point of the match was Priyanshu’s willingness to engage in rallies and immaculate defence. He defended hard smashes befo...

The Madhya Pradesh shuttler, who was part of the Indian team that registered an epic win at the 2022 Thomas Cup, saw off world number 49 Johannesen 21-15 19-21 21-16 in a 68-minute summit clash to grab the biggest title of his career. "I am very happy with my performance this week. It is my first big title and I'm extremely happy to win this," world no. 58 Rajawat, who is likely to get into top 40 after this win, told PTI from Orleans. The two shuttlers, making it to the final after coming through the qualifiers, dished out some superb badminton, but the Indian rode on his ability to produce winners to secure the world tour super 300 crown. It was the first meeting between the two 21-year-olds, both looking for a breakthrough win but Rajawat, who didn't drop a game in the USD 240,000 tournament, showed his maturity as he dished out a controlled aggressive game to come up trumps. The image of an airborne Rajawat unleashing a forehand crosscourt jump smash to trouble his opponent will be etched in the mind of the spectators, as he accumulated multiple points with this trademark shot. A year ago, Rajawat had returned early from Orleans when it was a super 100 event, but the tournament was upgraded to super 300 from this year, and the Indian made the most of the opportunity. Rajawat, who picked up the sport as a six-year-old, dished out his range of strokes to move to 6-5 with two aggressive returns on the left-handed Dane's backhand. A backhand smash and another winner saw hi...

Commonwealth Games champion Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen stormed into the second round of the men’s singles at the Indonesia Open World Tour Super 1000 event with a straight game win over Zii Jia Lee of Malaysia here on Wednesday. Lakshya, a world championship bronze medallist and ranked 20th in the world, took just 32 minutes to quell the challenge of world no.11 Lee 21-17 21-13. Thailand Open: Lakshya Sen fights hard but loses in three games against Kunlavut Vitidsarn Indonesia Open: Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy advance to quarters; PV Sindhu bows out after losing to Tai Tzu Ying Lakshya will next face the winner of the match between Lu Guang Zu of China and compatriot Kidambi Srikanth. Another Indian Priyanshu Rajawat got a walkover from Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand to seal his place in the next round. Rajawat, however, has a tough second round tie as he set to face the winner of the match between Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittnghus of Denmark and second seed local shuttler Anthony Sinisuka Ginting. The other Indian in men’s singles fray is HS Prannoy who will take on Hong Kong’s Angus Ng Ka Long in the second round. However, it was curtains for young Indian female shuttler Aakarshi Kashyap as she crashed out in the opening round of women’s singles. Kashyap was no match for second seed An Se young of Korea, losing 10-21 4-21. Read all the Updated Date: June 14, 2023 13:02:00 IST Thailand Open: Lakshya Sen fights hard but loses in three games against Kunlavut Vitidsarn The ...

Priyanshu Rajawat smashed his way into the final of the Orleans Masters BWF Super-300 Badminton tournament in Orleans, France, on Saturday. Producing at least a dozen smash winners each in both the games, Priyanshu toyed with Nhat Nguyen of Ireland 21-12, 21-9 in the semifinals. This the first Super-300 final for the 21-year-old. "It's my first super-300 finals and I am feeling extremely good about it," Priyanshu told ToI from Orleans. Queried about his game plan he said, "To be honest, I had no specific game plan. I am usually calm and that's my nature. I relied more on attack." Earlier, he had won four international challenge tournaments and was also part of the Indian squad that won the Thomas Cup last year. The world No.58 had an error-prone start and his four unforced errors helped Nhat to move to 5-2. But after Priyanshu settled down and got his rhythm, Nhat found it quite difficult to stop the Indian. From 2-5, Priyanshu moved to 8-5 and from 10-9 he zoomed ahead to 15-9 with the help of three jump smashes. Priyanshu's strategy was simple, if the shuttle was in the range he killed the rally with a smash. He was also good at the net and stretched forward to return the drops. With Priyanshu hitting everything hard, Nhat focused on reducing the flight of the shuttle but that did not prevent Priyanshu from securing the winners. In the second game Priyanshu was even more dominant. He started with a 4-0 lead and from 7-3 he came up with 11-point burst leaving little chanc...