Canada Open 2024: Indian Challenge Ends After Priyanshu Rajawat Crashes Out in Semi-Final

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India's challenge in the Canada Open 2024 ended after Priyanshu Rajawat suffered a straight-game loss to France's Alex Lanier in the men's singles semi-finals at the Markin MacPhail Centre in Calgary, Canada on Saturday (July 6) night.

World No. 39 Rajawat, who had defeated superior ranked opponents to reach his second Super 500 badminton tournament semi-final, went down 17-21 10-21 to Lanier, ranked 37th, in 45 minutes on court 1.

The Indian had defeated Lanier at the Madrid Spain Masters qualification round last year in their only meeting, but the Frenchman got the better of Rajawat this time around.

Rajawat, who had stunned Anders Antonsen of Denmark in the quarter-finals, made a positive start, opening up a 3-0 early lead but Lanier was quick to establish a 7-4 lead.

The two fought hard and Rajawat did grab the lead a few times but he couldn't sustain the pressure on his opponent, who reeled off five straight points at 15-16 to eventually close out the opening game.

Rajawat's game completely fell apart after the change of sides as Lanier zoomed to 8-2 and then 14-3, which proved decisive as the French shut the door on the Indian to win the game and the match by taking the second essay 21-10.

The 22-year-old was the lone Indian to reach the semi-finals after women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand suffered an upset loss to Chinese Taipei's Hsieh Pei Shan and Hung En-Tzu.

The third-seeded Indian women's doubles pair crashed out in the quarter-final round on Friday (July 5) following a 18-21 21-19 16-21 defeat to the Chinese Taipei's unseeded duo.

Earlier, Krishna Prasad Garaga and Sai Pratheek K, Rohan Kapoor and Gadde Ruthvika Shivani, Tanya Hemanth and Anupama Upadhyaya all bowed out following defeats in their respective second round matches.

Meanwhile, Sankar Subramanian, Ayush Shetty and doubles team of Kona Tarun and Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli suffered first round exits following defeats in their respective matches.