India's second row badminton players have also started making waves at the international level. World No. 58 shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat stormed into the quarterfinals of the Orleans Masters Super 300 badminton tournament after defeating top seed Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in straight games 21-8, 21-16. World No. 12 Nishimoto comes off the back of winning the Madrid Masters last week.


beat world No. 12 for the first time
This was Priyanshu's first win over a shuttler ranked above No. 15 in the world. Priyanshu was also a member of the Indian team that won the Thomas Cup. His biggest achievement so far is reaching the final of the Odisha Open Super 100 last year where he lost to compatriot Kiran George, but Priyanshu beat Kiran George in first round matches in Madrid and here. The 21-year-old Rajawat started the match aggressively and took a massive 10-0 lead. After this Nishimori could not return. They lost the game 21–8, scoring just 8 points.


Will now face Yu Zhen of Chinese Taipei
In the second game, Nishimoto came back to lead 6-2 but Priyanshu showed great fighting ability to level the score at 10-10. Nishimoto was leading 11-10 at the game break but Priyanshu broke down after the break to take a 16-11 lead. After this, he won the game 21-16 to seal the match. Priyanshu will take on Chi Yu Zhen of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals. Yu Jen defeated Mithun Manjunath 21-15, 21-19. In the mixed doubles pre-quarterfinals, Malaysia's Chen Tang Ji and Toh Ee Wei defeated India's Sai Prateek and Tanisha Crasto in a hard-fought match 21-23, 21-17, 23-21. On the other hand, Japan's Natsuki Nidaira defeated Tanya Hemant 21-8, 21-17 to enter the quarterfinals.