Canada Open 2024: Rajawat stuns Gemke to enter second round

Promising Indian shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat stunned higher-ranked Rasmus Gemke of Denmark in a hard-fought three-game contest to advance to the second round of the men’s singles event at the Canada Open here.

World No. 39 Rajawat had to dig deep to get the better of eighth seed Gemke of Denmark 17-21, 21-16, 21-14 in his opening round match that lasted one hour and 10 minutes on Wednesday night.

Rajawat, thus, remained the only Indian surviving player in the men’s singles competition and will take on Takuma Obayashi of Japan in the next round. The two other Indians in the fray, Ayush Shetty lost 14-21 11-21 to sixth seed Koki Watanabe of Japan, while S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian was shown the door by France’s Alex Lanier 16-21 17-21.

In the women’s singles, Tanya Hemanth and Anupama Upadhyay also progressed to the second round.

While Tanya beat Jackie Dent of Canada 21-13 20-22 21-14, Anupama defeated Rachael Darragh os Ireland 21-11 21-11.

Tanya will be up against third seed Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand, while Anupama will play Canada’s Michelle Li.