Orleans Masters 2023: Priyanshu Rajawat storms into QFs, upsets top seed Kenta Nishimoto in round of 16

Orleans [France], April 6 : Indian men's singles shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat stormed into the quarterfinal of the men's singles competition in the ongoing Orleans Masters 2023, defeating the top seed and world number 12 Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in a shocker in his round of 16 match at Orleans, France on Thursday.

He defeated Nishimoto by 21-8, 21-16 in two straight games.

"UPSET ALERT #PriyanshuRajawat gets the better of top seed Kenta Nishimoto in straight games 21-8, 21-16 in R16 to enter quarterfinals at #OrleansMasters2023 Well done champ! : @badmintonphoto #IndiaontheRise #Badminton," tweeted Badminton Association of India (BAI) Media.

https://twitter.com/BAI_Media/status/1643910213815377923?t=2Oi30iV4B_o2oMxpqFeEig&s=08

Earlier, at the women's singles competition at the Orleans Master 2023 BWF Super 300 badminton tournament in France on Wednesday, Indian badminton star Saina Nehwal lost in the opening round.

In the match that lasted 39 minutes, Saina Nehwal was defeated by Nesilhan Yigit of Turkey 16-21, 14-21, as per Olympics.com.

Saina Nehwal, who is ranked 32nd in the world in badminton, got off to a sluggish start and quickly fell behind. The Indian badminton star made an effort to come back and narrowed the deficit to 11-13, but Nesilhan Yigit, who is ranked 33 places below Saina, quickly put an end to the battle and won the opening game easily.

Saina Nehwal was down 0-4 in the second match after Nesilhan Yigit swiftly put the Indian under strain. The Turk won the game and the match by not conceding an advantage.

It was Saina Nehwal's first competition since the Indonesia Masters in January. The German Open, All England Open, Swiss Open, and Madrid Spain Masters competitions were all missed by the Olympic medalist.

Tanya Hemnath advanced to the second round of the women's singles competition by defeating French shuttler Leonice Huet 21-17, 21-18. Aakarshi Kashyap and Tasnim Mir, however, were eliminated.

Tasnim Mir lost to German shuttler Yvonne Li 22-20, 13-21, 5-21, while Aakarshi Kashyap lost to Natsuki Nidaira of Japan 8-21, 21-13, 8-21.

In the men's singles, Mithun Manjunath, who is rated 43rd, defeated Victor Svendensen of Denmark 24-22, 25-23 to advance to round 2. Kiran George was defeated by fellow countryman Priyanshu Rajawat 21-18, 21-13 to advance to the next round.