BASEL: Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu clinched her second women’s singles title of the season with a straight game win over Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan but HS Prannoy went down fighting in the men’s singles final at the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament on Sunday.
Playing her second successive final in the tournament, Sindhu, a double Olympic medallist, took 49 minutes to get the better of the fourth seeded Busanan 21-16, 21-8 at the St. Jakobshalle.
However, Prannoy suffered a 12-21, 18-21 defeat against Asian Games gold medallist and fourth seed Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in a 48-minute summit clash to finish runner-up.
You can keep your head high @PRANNOYHSPRI, you did well &
For Sindhu, it was a moment of glory as she finally lifted the trophy after losing to Rio Olympics gold medallist Carolina Marin of Spain in the final of last edition.
The 26-year-old from Hyderabad has happy memories of this venue as she had also claimed the World Championships gold in 2019.
On Sunday, Sindhu registered her 16th win over Busanan in 17 meetings, having lost to the Thai only once — at the 2019 Hong Kong Open, to claim the Super 300 crown, the second lowest tier of BWF Tour events.
Sindhu had won the Syed Modi International Super 300 in Lucknow in January this year.
Sindhu rode on her attack to open up a 3-0 lead but Busanan started to stay in the rallies and produced some good quality shots to make it 7-7.
Busanan tried to keep Sindhu away from the net initially, making her move across the court but the Thai was erratic in her finishing, allowing the Indian to go into the break with a narrow two-point lead.
Busanan used her deceptions and drop shots to dictate the rallies but Sindhu relied on her retrieval skills to stay ahead.
A precise return at the backline gave Sindhu four game points and she sealed the first game when Busanan went wide.
—PTI

Press Trust of India