Indian badminton star Priyanshu Rajawat secured a hard-fought victory against Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke in the first round of the Canada Open 2024 men’s singles event, held at the Markin-MacPhail Centre in Calgary on Wednesday.
Rajawat, currently ranked 39th in the world, overcame the world No. 24 Danish player in a thrilling three-game match that lasted one hour and 10 minutes. After losing the first game 17-21, Rajawat rallied to take the next two games 21-16, 21-14.
A member of India’s historic Thomas Cup-winning team in 2022, Rajawat will face Japan’s Takuma Obayashi, ranked 33rd, in the second round of this BWF Super 500 event on Thursday.
The Indian contingent had more reasons to celebrate as women’s singles players Anupama Upadhyaya and Tanya Hemanth, along with the mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Gadde, also progressed to the second round.
Anupama Upadhyaya, ranked 46th in the world, dispatched 67th-ranked Irish player Rachael Darragh with a convincing 21-11, 21-11 victory. Up next, she will compete against Canada’s world No. 36 Michelle Li in the round of 16.
Tanya Hemanth, ranked 74th, faced a tougher challenge against Canada’s world No. 220 Jackie Dent. Despite losing a closely contested second game, Hemanth triumphed 21-13, 20-22, 21-14. She now prepares to meet Thailand’s 19th-ranked Busanan Ongbamrungphan in the next round.
The mixed doubles duo of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Gadde, a newly-formed pair, cruised to a straightforward 21-9, 21-9 win over fellow Indians Tarun Kona and Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli. They will face Chinese Taipei’s Chen Cheng Kuan and Hsu Yin-Hui in the following round.
In other results, Indian men’s singles players Sankar Subramanian and Ayush Shetty were both ousted in the first round. Subramanian fell 21-16, 21-17 to France’s Alex Lanier, while Shetty was defeated 21-14, 21-11 by Japan’s sixth seed Koki Watanabe.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, seeded seventh in the women’s doubles, received a first-round bye. They will compete against the Dutch pair of Alyssa Tirtosentono and Natasja Anthonisen on Thursday.
Notably, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and world Championships bronze medallists HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen have opted out of the tournament to focus on preparations for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics.
