PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy enter Swiss Open final

HS Prannoy dished out scintillating performances to make their way to the women's and men's singles finals respectively at the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament on Saturday. 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 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. The 26-year-old from Hyderabad will start as favourite against Busanan, whom she has beaten an overwhelming 15 times in 16 meetings so far. 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