Priyanshu Rajawat reaches final of Orleans Masters badminton

India’s Priyanshu Rajawat stood on the verge of the biggest breakthrough of his young badminton career on Saturday. The 21-year-old entered the men’s singles final at the $240,000 Orleans Masters in France with a straight games semi-final victory. Rajawat dominated Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen for a 21-12, 21-9 victory in 44 minutes at the Palais des Sports.

It has been an incredible week for Rajawat, who was part of India’s victorious Thomas Cup squad in Bangkok last year, though he didn’t play. The world No 58 wasn’t even in the main draw initially and was promoted from the reserve list after seven players withdrew from the Super 300 tournament.

After defeating friend and compatriot Kiran George in straight games in the first round, Rajawat caused the tournament’s biggest upset when he beat top seed and world No 12 Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in the second round to enter the last eight. It was a huge win for Rajawat, especially considering Nishimoto’s form after winning the Spain Masters in Madrid last week.

Rajawat then defeated Yu Jen Chi of Chinese Taipei to enter the semi-finals. He is yet to drop a game in the tournament, which has been upgraded after being a Super 100 event until last year.

The player has steadily gone up the rankings chart, from world No 393 in October 2019. He broke into the top 300 by the first week of January 2020 and entered the top 200 by October 2021. Rajawat entered the top 100 in January 2022 before achieving his best-ever ranking of 47 in January this year. The current run in France is expected to push him into the top 40.

In the final on Sunday, Rajawat will face another upcoming talent, Magnus Johannesen of Denmark, who is ranked nine spots above him. Both are aiming to win their first title on the BWF World Tour. Rajawat also reached the final of the 2022 Odisha Open where he lost to George in three games. Johannesen, who was also promoted from the reserve list, will be playing in his first final on the tour.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.