Hylo Open: Sindhu Storms into Second Straight Final

Germany's Saarlandhalle in Saarbrucken hosted a strong day for Indian badminton on Saturday. At the Hylo Open Super 500 tournament, PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen both advanced to the finals, giving India a real chance at two titles.

In form and playing with confidence, two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu won her women's singles semifinal in straight games. This took her to a second consecutive BWF World Tour final.

On the men's side, Lakshya Sen beat Toma Junior Popov to earn his place in the final.

The women's semifinal was a contest between two Indians, Sindhu and Anmol Kharb, for the first time at the international level. Sindhu won 21-13, 21-16 in 38 minutes. She has yet to drop a game in the tournament and remains unbeaten. Her final opponent will be Denmark's Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt.

Sindhu's form is a continuation of her recent results. She was the French Open runner-up in Paris last week, losing 21-16, 11-21, 12-21 to An Se-young. The South Korean world number one won her fourth French Open title in that event.

Lakshya Sen also reached his final in style, winning 21-17, 21-13 against France's sixth seed Popov in 41 minutes. His head-to-head record against Popov is now 3-2 in his favour.

This is Lakshya's second final of the current season, following his runner-up finish at the All England Open earlier in the year. He will now take on Denmark's Mathias Sogaard.

Sindhu and Lakshya have shared a tournament final before, when both reached the 2024 Syed Modi India International final.