Indian shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat makes 1st-round exit from China Open

Rising Indian shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat suffered a straight-game defeat to Canada's Brian Yang as he made an opening-round exit from the China Open here on Tuesday.

The 22-year-old Indian, who won the Orleans Master last year, went down 13-21 16-21 to his Canadian opponent in a 36-minute men's round-of-32 contest of the Super 1000 tournament.

Rajawat, the world number 36, was a member of the Indian team that won the historic Thomas Cup title two years ago.

World number 40 Kiran George is now the lone Indian challenger left in the men's singles event. He will take on Japanese shuttler Kenta Nishimoto in the round of 32.

The Indian shuttler, who competed at the Paris Olympics including PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and the men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, are giving the tournament, the year's last BWF Super 1000 event, a miss.

Commonwealth Games bronze medallist duo of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly and Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda will compete in the women's doubles event while N Sikki Reddy and B Sumeeth Reddy will lead the challenge in mixed doubles competition.

Aakarshi Kashyap, Malvika Bansod and Samiya Imad Farooqui will compete in the women's singles event.