Indian youngster Priyanshu Rajawat pulled off the biggest win of his fledgling international career so far as he powered past top seed Kenta Nishimoto in the round of 16 at the Orleans Masters Super 300 event in France on Thursday.

There was, however, disappointment for 2022 finalist Mithun Manjunath who bowed out in straight games.

Playing his first match on the BWF World Tour against a top 15 opponent, the 21-year-old Rajawat, ranked No 58 in the world, came through in straight games 21-8, 21-16 against world No 12 Nishimoto.

The Japanese star, who had won the title last week in Madrid at the Spain Masters, was off to a poor start as Rajawat raced to a 10-0 lead in the opening game. While Nishimoto, as he tends to, rallied back from it to find his footing, the gap was too big to overcome and Rajawat took the lead 21-8.

The second game was a much closer affair with things evenly poised at 10-10, and Nishimoto then taking a slender lead into the interval. But the Indian once again put together a brilliant run of points to go from 10-11 to 16-11. That little burst proved to be game-changing as despite a late fightback from Nishimoto, a former top 10 player, the Indian prevailed to win.

Rajawat, who was part of India’s Thomas Cup title-winning squad last year, has previously reached the final at the Odisha Open which was a Super 100 event last year.

Rajawat will next face Yu Jen Chi after the Chinese Taipei shuttler prevented an all-Indian clash by defeating Mithun. The Indian national champion paid the price first for just a brief lapse of concentration in the opening game. Later, when he looked set to force the decider by leading 19-17, Yu came back to win four straight points to close the match out. It was a defeat of fine margins for Mithun, who made costly errors at critical times while otherwise playing a solid match.

Tanya Hemanth, Ashwini-Tanisha, Dhruv-Arjun and Tanisha-Sai are in action later in the day.

More to follow

Here’s a look at the Indian results from Thursday: