Double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu and HS Prannoy made their way to the women's and men's finals respectively at the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament on Saturday (March 26).
World no.7 Sindhu prevailed 21-18, 15-21, 21-19 over Thailand's Supanida Katethong in a 79-minute women's singles semifinal to make her second successive final after Prannoy eked out a hard-fought 21-19, 19-21, 21-18 win over Indonesia's world no.5 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting for his first summit clash in five years.
Sindhu, seeded second, will face another Thai player and fourth seed Busanan Ongbamrungphan in the summit clash on Sunday, while Prannoy, who had last won the US Open in 2017, will take on either compatriot Kidambi Srikanth or Indonesia's Jonatan Christie in the men's singles final, also on Sunday.
Sindhu and world number 29 Supanida had shared the spoils in the two meetings this year and the Indian showed great nerves against the fighting Thai to come out unscathed in the semifinals on Saturday.
In the opening game, Sindhu, who had won the Syed Modi International in January, used the court well, producing her smashes and follow up shots to gather points. Supanida tried to stay in the rallies but she couldn't finish them.
At the first break, Sindhu had a three-point advantage and she swelled it to 15-7 with a run of four points. The left-handed Thai tried to attack and dominate the rallies to narrow the deficit to 13-18.
However, she was not consistent enough as Sindhu grabbed five game points when the Thai went long.
The Indian found the net next, while Supanida grabbed two more points before smashing one at the nets to allow the Indian take the opening game. Supanida continued her momentum after the change of sides, running up a 16-7 lead in quick time with Sindhu looking erratic and struggling against the deceptions of the Thai player.
The Thai eventually roared back into the contest when Sindhu went to the nets. The Hyderabadi shuttler came back strongly in the decider, gaining a 4-1 lead but Supanida once again clawed her way to draw parity at 7-7 with a smash.
Both the shuttlers tried to take control of the front court with Sindhu managing to take a one-point lead in the final interval. Sindhu stepped up the pace in the rallies to move to 16-13 but Supanida reeled off five straight points to surpass the Indian. It was soon 18-18 with Supanida going wide.
A lucky net chord helped Sindhu move to 19-19 as she held the match point with a smash and she sealed it with another powerful smash.
