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 in Basel on Saturday. (More Badminton News)
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 number 5𒉰 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 me🎀n'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 unsc𓆉athed in the semifinals on Saturday.
In the opening game, Sindhu, who had won the Syed Modi International in Januar𝔍y, used the court well, producing her smashes and follow up shots to gather poi🐽nts. Supanida tried to stay in the rallies but she couldn't finish them.
At the first break, Sindhu had a three-point𝕴 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 n🥀arrow the deficit to 13-18.
However, she was not consistent enough as Sindhu grab🐎bed five game points 🅘when the Thai went long.
The Indian found the net next, whi❀le Supanida grabbed two more points before smas🍃hing one at the nets to allow the Indian take the opening game.
Supanida continued her momenꦉtum after the change of sides, running up a 16-7 lead in quick time with Sindhu looking erratic and struggli🍌ng against the deceptions of the Thai player.
The Thai eventually ✅roared back into the contest when Sindhu went to the nets.
The Hyderabadi shuttler caꦰme back strongly in the decider, gainဣing 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 cour😼t 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 poin꧟ܫts to surpass the Indian. It was soon 18-18 with Supanida going wide.
A lucky n✱et chord𝓀 helped Sindhu move to 19-19 as she held the match point with a smash and she sealed it with another powerful smash.
