Rising Indian shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat, who is now ranked fourth in the world, upset top-seeded Dane Anders Antonsen to advance to the Canada Open semifinals.
The world number 39 Rajawat won a tough one hour and nineteen minutes on Friday night against Antonsen, winning 21-11, 17-21, 21-19.
Nevertheless, Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly of the women’s doubles team lost in the quarterfinals.
Chinese Taipei’s Pei Shan Hsieh and En-Tzu Hung defeated the third-seeded Indians 18-21 21-19 16-21.
The 22-year-old Rajawat defeated Antonsen to record his first-ever victory over a player ranked in the top ten. That World Tour Super 500 semifinal matchup will be his second against Frenchman Alex Lanier.
Rajawat got out to a great start in the first game, leading 7–4 before Antonsen tied the score at 9–9.
The Indian then took the lead after scoring five straight points. Rajawat then went on to win the first game as the Dane attempted to mount a comeback.
After falling behind 0–1, Antonsen rallied in the second game, and even though Rajawat caught up with him and even tied the score at 17, he dropped four straight games as the world No. 4 pushed for a decision.
In the decisive game, Rajawat had a 5-1 lead at one point, but Antonsen answered with six straight points to put the Danish player ahead 7-5.
Despite Rajawat’s three-point comeback, the seasoned Dane led by just a slim margin at the half, 11–10.
It might have been anybody’s game with so little separating the two players, but Rajawat sealed the victory with back-to-back points at 19-19.
The lone remaining Indian in the competition is Rajawat.
In the first and second rounds, he had triumphed over opponents with better rankings, including Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke, rated number 24, and Japan’s Takuma Obayashi, ranked 33.
