Sindhu enters final; Srikanth, Satwik-Chirag lose in semis

Basel: Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu dished out a superlative performance to outclass Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark in straight games and enter the women's singles final of the Swiss Open Super 300 tournament here on Saturday.

Sindhu, the reigning world champion, beat fourth seeded Blichfeldt 22-20 21-10 in 43 minutes to avenge her first-round loss to the Danish world number 12 at the Yonex Thailand Open in January. This is Sindhu's first final appearance since the World championships here in 2019.

The second seeded Indian will take on top seed and Rio Olympics gold medallist Carolina Marin in the summit clash on Sunday. It will the first meeting between the two in over two years. Former champion Kidambi Srikanth, however, couldn't cross the semifinal stage as he went down 13-21 19-21 to top seed and former world champion Viktor Axelsen.

World number 10 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also bowed out after losing 10-21 17-21 to sixth seeded Danish pair of Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in the last-four stage. The Indian duo had a last four finish in their last event at Toyota Thailand Open in January.

Sindhu thus emerged as the lone Indian survivor in the USD 140,000 event, the first tournament in the extended Olympic qualification period which ends on June 15. In the women's singles match, Sindhu erased a 5-7 deficit in the opening game to grab a 11-8 advantage at the interval.

The Indian then zoomed to 17-12 but Blichfeldt clawed back with five straight points. Sindhu soon grabbed three game points but again her rival managed to level the score. However, the Indian ensured she had the last laugh as she pocketed the opening game.

Sindhu dominated the proceedings in the second game as she was up 5-2 first and kept moving ahead. She enjoyed a 11-6 lead at the break and continued her good run to eventually shut the door on her opponent.

On Friday night, Srikanth had beat sixth seed Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand 21-19 21-15 to enter the semifinals. Satwik and Chirag also had notched up a 12-21 21-19 21-12 win over against fifth seeds Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi to enter the semifinals.