The 14th clash between traditional on-court foes Pusarla V. Sindhu and Carolina Marin will be the highlight of the YONEX Swiss Open 2021 finals today.

Pusarla’s assured 22-20 21-10 win early in the day over Mia Blichfeldt allowed her to seal a place in the showpiece match in 43 minutes.

Marin later battled past a resolute Pornpawee Chochuwong 21-15 20-22 21-19 to turn into reality the blockbuster predicted and anticipated by many. The Spaniard leads their head-to-head 8-5.

While women’s singles lived up to expectations, Kunlavut Vitidsarn played spoiler in men’s singles, shocking an out-of-sorts second seed Lee Zii Jia 21-18 21-10.

The 19-year-old Thai, a three-time world junior champion, will take on No.1 seed Viktor Axelsen, who overcame Kidambi Srikanth 21-13 21-19 in a tussle of former champions to qualify for his sixth straight HSBC BWF World Tour final.

There was also more disappointment for Malaysia in men’s doubles as first seeds Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik went down unexpectedly to world No.19s Mark Lamsfuss/Marvin Seidel.

It set up an all-European contest in the category, with Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen denying fellow Dane Mathias Boe and his second-seeded charges Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty in the day’s closing encounter.

The women’s doubles title match meanwhile, will be contended by Gabriela Stoeva/Stefani Stoeva and Tan Pearly/Thinaah Muralitharan – their first meeting – after they checked the runs of the No.1 and No.2 seeds respectively.

The Bulgarian sisters upset favourites Jongkolphan Kititharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai 21-16 21-14 to reach their third final in four seasons while Tan/ Muralitharan recorded their maiden triumph (10-21 21-14 21-16) over senior compatriots Chow Mei Kuan/Lee Meng Yean.

History Beckons France

Thom Gicquel/Delphine Delrue could become the first French mixed pair in 63 years to win the event following their convincing 21-19 21-10 win over Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing.

Standing in their way are the unseeded Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra BØje, who surprised No.3 choices Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith 21-16 23-21.

FUN FACT

The Stoevas will hope to be third time lucky after losing back-to-back finals in 2017 and 2018.

DAY 5 RESULTS