After six days of intense action, we are down to the finals day at the 2016 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold and in the Men’s Singles, India has a strong chance to come back home with the title for a second straight year(Kidambi Srikanth won the title last year) courtesy HS Prannoy, who will compete in the finals against Marc Zwiebler of Germany on Sunday.
The road to the final for the Indian expectedly got tougher as he passed the earlier rounds and moved into the business end but what will give him confidence is the fact that in the semifinals when the odds seemed stacked against him to overcome a one-game deficit, he fought his way to first – win the second game and then held his nerve to clinch the decider.
Sometimes, these are the kind of victories that provide the players some additional self-confidence as they head into summit clashes and Prannoy, who has had a up-and-down start to 2016, will hope to carry that confidence into the final.
His opponent on the day- Marc Zwiebler- is also coming into the final on the back of some excellent wins, including one against second seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals and like Prannoy also had to fight his way into the final after being stretched to three games in the semifinals against Henri Hurskainen of Sweden.
The two have met just once in the past and that was at the Australian Open when the German beat the Indian in straight games.
Final Details:
Match: HS Prannoy vs Marc Zwiebler
Time: At around 6 P.M
Television details: Star Sports 4
Prediction: Having emerged from a much tougher and also beaten the second seed, it is Marc Zwiebler who holds the edge but not by much.