Basel, March 26 : Former world champion and two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu marched through to the Swiss Open Super 300 final after defeating Supanida Katethong of Thailand 21-18, 15-21, 21-19 here on Saturday. In the men’s singles, HS Prannoy knocked out world No. 5 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 21-19, 19-21, 21-18 in 1 hour and 12 minutes to progress to the final of the Super 300 event. This is the second successive Swiss Open final for Sindhu. She had reached the final of the super 300 event in 2021, where she ended up as a runner-up after losing the final to Spain’s Carolina Marin. In the opening set, Sindhu kept the Katethong in control since the beginning of the game as she held 11-7 at the time of break. Sindhu maintained her lead post and Katethong earned a few points in a row and tried to bounce back but Sindhu was quick to wrap up the game with 21-18. After the change of sides, Katethong made Sindhu struggle a bit to earn points raced to 5-1 lead. The Thai shuttler was in different zone as kept Sindhu at bay throughout the second game and went on to hold massive 19-9 lead. A late fightback from Sindhu did reduce the deficit to 19-14 but was not enough for her save the game as Katethong took the match into decider by winning the second game 21-15. In the deciding game, Sindhu was leading 7-4 but Katethong quick enough to levelled it up to 7-7. Both shuttlers were engaged in a neck-to-neck contest before Sindhu head on to break with slender 11-10 advantage. Both the players were engaged in an intense game as neither of them managed to hold lead for long before Sindhu walked away with a win after the close encounter. This was the fourth meeting between both the shuttlers and Sindhu held 2-1 head-to-head lead over Thai player. With a win, the former world champion extended her head-to-head record to 3-1 over Katethong. Earlier this year, Sindhu defeated Katethong in the Syed Modi India International quarterfinal. BAV GK
