After winning his maiden BWF World Tour Super 300 title at the Orleans Masters on Sunday, India shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat, 21, aims to break into the Top 15 of the BWF rankings in the next few months.
Rajawat’s win in France helped him jump 20 places to achieve a career-best world ranking of 38. In the final, Rajawat, who was part of the 2022 Thomas Cup-winning side, beat Denmark’s World No. 49 Magnus Johannesen 21-15, 19-21, 21-16.
“What made my victory memorable was the fact that my idol Gopi sir [Pullela Gopichand] praised me for my win. I felt on top of the world. Since this is my first major title of my career, it will remain special. My short-term goal is to ensure that I do not let my rankings fall and enter the Top 15 in the next three to four months. In order to do that, I want to work on my body strength and improve my strokes. The next three tournaments that I will play are Malaysia Masters [May 23-28], Thailand Open [May 30-June 4] and Singapore Open [June 6-11],” said Rajawat, who has been a trainee at the Pullela Gopichand Academy since he was eight.
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Rajawat, who started playing badminton in his hometown Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, after watching elder brother Kunal as a six-year-old, said his ultimate goal is to emulate his idol and chief national coach Gopichand’s achievement of winning the All England Championships. “Gopi sir is my idol and my all-time favourite is China’s Lin Dan. My long-term goal would be to win singles medals for the country at the Olympics among other major events and be an All England champion like Gopi sir. I dedicate this win to him, his family, all my coaches, my parents [dad Bhupendra and mom Prerna], brother [Kunal] and my sister [Taneea],”
he remarked.
