Upcoming Indian shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat’s dream run in the Singapore Masters Super 750 tournament ended with a pre-quarterfinal loss to third seed Kodai Naraoka here on Thursday. The unseeded Rajawat, who had stunned world No. 15 Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan in the opening round, lost to Naraoka 17-21, 16-21, in straight games.
Having ousted HS Prannoy in the first round, the world No. 4 Naraoka of Japan maintained his lead as the world No. 37 Indian played a catching-up game throughout to go down in a 47-minute battle. In the men’s doubles, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila lost to England’s Ben Lane and Sean Vendy, 15-21, 19-21, in a 41-minute affair.
Former India number one Kidambi Srikanth is now the lone Indian in the fray. He will take on Chinese Taipei’s Chia Hao Lee in the round of 16. The 2021 world championships silver medalist, Srikanth, beat Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen 21-15, 21-19, in the opening round.
Chia Hao Lee, on the other hand, beat Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto in his opening match after being promoted to the main draw from the reserve. Earlier, double Olympic medalist Sindhu, who was the defending champion of the event, had lost to world number 1 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the opening round. Former World Championship bronze medallist Lakshya Sen and London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal too have exited in the first round itself.
The World No. 11 doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and Commonwealth women’s doubles bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also crashed out in their respective opening round matches.