Orleans Masters: India’s Priyanshu Rajawat stuns Chi Yu Jen to storm into semifinals

India’s upcoming shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat continued his brilliant run at the Orleans Masters Badminton 2023, storming into the semifinals with a straight games victory against Chinese Taipei’s Chi Yu Jen here on Friday.

Rajawat, who had stunned top seed Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in the second round, defeated Chi Yu Jen 21-18, 21-18 in a 44-minute quarterfinal clash at the Palais Des Sports in the French city.

Rajawat, currently 58th in the world badminton rankings, had defeated world No. 12 Nishimoto 21-8, 21-16 to seal a place in the last eight of the BWF Super 300 badminton tournament. He continued in the same vein on Friday, playing aggressively and keeping the Chinese Taipei player on his toes throughout.

After scores went neck-and-neck till 9-all in the first game, Rajawat won four points ina row to go up 13-9. Though Chi Yu Jen closed the gap to 13-12, the 21-year-old Indian went on to win the game, surging ahead from 16-15.

In the second game, the Chinese Taipei player took an early lead but Rajawat caught up with him at 7-7 and then again at 10-all. Rajawat took lead and opened up a 13-10 gap and extended it to 17-13 as he went on to win the game 21-18 to seal the victory.

Priyanshu Rajawat will next face Nhat Nguyen of Ireland as the Vietnam-born 22-year-old reached the semifinals after he got a walkover from Israeli opponent Misha Zilberman in their quarterfinal.

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-IANS

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