CANADA: Rising Indian shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat continued his fine form and advanced to the men's singles quarterfinals of the Canada Open with a straight-game win over Japan's Takuma Obayashi.
Ranked world No. 39, Rajawat defeated the 33rd-ranked Obayashi 21-19, 21-11 in 38 minutes on Thursday night. He will face top seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark in the last-eight round.
In the women's doubles, the third-seeded Indian duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also progressed to the quarterfinals. Treesa and Gayatri fought back from a game down to beat Denmark's Natasja P. Anthonisen and the Netherlands' Alyssa Tirtosentono 17-21, 21-7, 21-8 in a 48-minute round of 16 match. They will next face Pei Shan Hsieh and En-Tzu Hung of Chinese Taipei.
However, it was the end of the road for other Indian players in the second round. In women's singles, both Anupama Upadhyaya and Tanya Hemanth were eliminated. Anupama fought hard but lost to Canada's Michelle Li 14-21, 21-17, 13-21, while Tanya was defeated by third seed Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand in straight games, 11-21, 13-21.
In men's doubles, the Indian pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and K. Sai Pratheek lost a close match to Chinese Taipei's Bing-Wei Lin and Ching Heng Su, 21-19, 18-21, 17-21. The Indian mixed doubles combination of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde also bowed out, losing to the eighth-seeded Chinese Taipei pair of Cheng Kuan Chen and Yin-Hui Hsu, 15-21, 21-19, 9-21.