HS Prannoy Enters Swiss Open Final

Continuing his impressive run, India's H S Prannoy stormed into the men's singles final at the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament with a hard-fought win over Indonesia's world number 5 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting at Basel on Saturday.

The 29-year-old eked out a 21-19 19-21 21-18 win over Ginting in a thrilling semifinal that lasted an hour and 11 minutes.

It was Prannoy's first final in five years, having won the US Open in 2017.

He will take on either compatriot Kidambi Srikanth or Indonesia's Jonatan Christie in the summit clash on Sunday.

A former top 10 player, Prannoy came into the match with a 1-1 head-to-head count against Ginting, who is currently ranked 21 places higher than him at world no. 5.

The Indian looked in good touch as he grabbed the initiative early and held a 6-3 lead which was quickly erased by Ginting to move to a 12-19 advantage at one stage.

A five-point burst gave Prannoy a slender two-point lead and he maintained it till 18-16 before a net error and a service fault helped his rival to level par.

Ginting, however, went to net twice himself to hand over Prannoy a game point and the Indian sealed it with a precise return on his rival's front court.

After a tight battle in the second game, it was Ginting who grabbed a three-point lead at the interval following a couple of errors from the Indian at the net and front court.

Prannoy tried to send his rival to the corners with his diagonal shots but Ginting responded with a body return. The duo tried to go close to the lines and force errors on one another.

The Indian fought his way back to 18-19 but a judgement error at the backline gave one game point to Ginting, who squandered one with a net error before Prannoy smashed out to allow his rival to make a comeback.

In the decider, Prannoy took a 8-5 lead and went into the break with a three-point advantage after Ginting's backhand return went to net.

The Indian increased his lead to 14-8 but he stumbled to a series of errors to allow Ginting make it 15-19.

Prannoy unleashed a smash to grab four match points. He squandered two before entering the finals with another precise return.