Canada Open: Rajawat stuns Antonsen; Treesa-Gayatri exit

Calgary (Canada): Continuing his dream run, rising Indian shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat stunned top seed and world No. 4 Anders Antonsen of Denmark to enter the semifinals of the Canada Open here on Friday.

World No. 39 Rajawat defeated Antonsen 21-11, 17-21, 21-19 in a gruelling one hour, 19-minute quarterfinal clash.

However, the women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand made a quarterfinal exit. The third-seeded Indians were handed an 18-21, 21-19, 16-21 defeat by Chinese Taipei’s Pei Shan Hsieh and En-Tzu Hung.

The win against Antonsen is the 22-year-old Rajawat’s first-ever victory over a top-10 player. He will take on Alex Lanier of France in what will be his second World Tour Super 500 semifinal.

Rajawat was off to a bright start, taking a 7-4 lead in the opening game before Antonsen levelled it at 9-9.

The Indian then picked up five points on the trot to gain the upper hand and while the Dane tried to fashion a comeback, Rajawat claimed seven successive points to take the first game.

Trailing 0-1, Antonsen made a strong comeback in the second game and although Rajawat matched him, even levelling the game at 17, he lost four straight points as the world No. 4 forced a decider.

In the final game, Rajawat initially led 5-1, but Antonsen responded with six consecutive points, bringing the score to 7-5 in favour of the Danish player.

Rajawat staged a comeback by winning three points but the experienced Dane entered the mid-game break with a slender 11-10 lead.

With little differentiating the two players, it could have been anybody’s game but at 19-19 Rajawat won back-to-back points to seal the match.

Rajawat is the only Indian left in the competition.

He had pulled off victories against higher-ranked opponents — world No. 24 Rasmus Gemke of Denmark and Japan’s Takuma Obayashi, ranked 33rd, in the first and second rounds respectively.