India’s Kidambi Srikanth came from behind to beat compatriot Priyanshu Rajawat for a place in the second round of the men’s singles event at the Canada Open 2025 badminton tournament in Ontario on Wednesday.
Kidambi Srikanth, currently 49th in the badminton rankings, lost the opening game against compatriot Priyanshi Rajawat but rallied back to win the 53-minute contest 18-21, 21-19, 21-14 at the Markham Pan Am Centre.
Former world No. 1 Srikanth had lost both his matches against Rajawat, the seventh seed and world No. 39, prior to this.
Srikanth’s opponent in the pre-quarterfinals will be Chinese Taipei’s world No. 71 Wang Po-Wei, who upset Malaysia’s Justin Hoh in the opening round.
Meanwhile, world No. 31 and fifth seed Ayush Shetty, fresh off his title win at the US Open last week, failed to replicate a similar run in Ontario as he was ousted in the opening round by fellow Indian badminton player Sankar Subramanian.
Muthusamy, ranked 57th, took 44 minutes to emerge as the winner by a 23-21, 21-12 scoreline and will go up against Chinese Taipei’s Huang Yu Kai in the next round.
Meanwhile, Shriyanshi Valishetty was the only Indian shuttler who managed to cross the opening round hurdle in women’s singles at the BWF Super 300 tournament.