World No 7 PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy have made it to the final of the women’s and men’s events respectively at the Swiss Open Super 300 in Basel.
Both the Indians had to struggle in their semi-finals though to make it to the summit clash.
Sunday’s match in the final will be Sindhu’s second of this season, after she won the Syed Modi International in January. She did however, have to battle for an hour and 19 minutes in the semi-final on Saturday to beat Thailand’s Supanida Katethong 21-18, 15-21, 21-19.
For the final however, the second seeded Indian comes up against another Thai player, fourth seed Busanan Ongbramrungphan. But it’s the double Olympic medallist from Hyderabad who will be quietly confident heading into the tie, given the past record against the Thai player.
Starting from the Under-19 Asia Youth Championship in 2012, the duo have faced each other 16 times, and Sindhu has won 15 of those encounters – losing only at the Hong Kong Open in 2019.
Meanwhile Prannoy, in the men’s singles, reached his first tour final in five years.
He had to do battle with Anthony Ginting of Indonesia for an hour and 12 minutes to come up with a tight 21-19, 19-21, 21-18 win to put him in contention of winning his first title since the 2017 US Open.
Prannoy takes on fourth seed Jonatan Christie in the final.
There was a chance though of an all-Indian men’s final, but Christie got the better of Kidambi Srikanth with an 18-21, 21-7, 21-13 win in 55 minutes.