India's Kidambi Srikanth takes on reigning Olympic champion Chen Long in the men's singles final of Australian Open badminton 2017 in Sydney on Sunday.
Srikanth continued his imperious form with a dominating win over top-ranked Chinese shuttler Shi Yuqi in the semi-final on Saturday. The world number 11 needed only 34 minutes to decimate the All England Championships runner-up 21-10, 21-14.
On the other hand, Chen reached his first Superseries final of the year, beating world number 14 Lee Hyun II of Korea 26-24, 15-21, 21-17 in a marathon semi-final battle that stretched to an hour and eight minutes.
If recent form is anything to go by, then Sunday's final is expected to be closely-fought encounter. Srikanth has been the most consistent shuttler in the men's singles circuit in the recent past as he has become the first shuttler since Lee Chong Wei in 2014 to reach a third straight Superseries finals.
In his dream run, Srikanth outclassed world number one Son Wan Ho en route to the top step of the podium at Indonesia Superseries Premier and once again defeated the South Korean in the R16 in Sydney last week. However, the 24-year-old is set to face one of the toughest tests of this season when he steps on court to take on Chen later today.
Srikanth has never defeated Chen in their five career meetings, with two of those losses coming in 2017. The Indian shuttler was dumped out of February's German Open by the Chinese shuttler, who also defeated him in the quarter-final rubber of Sudirman Cup.
After missing most of the post-Rio Olympic season in 2016, Chen struggled to get back to his best earlier this year with disappointing results at All England Championships and Malaysia Open. However, winning the Badminton Asia Championships by beating two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan in the final seems to have given him the much-needed confidence to reign supreme once again.
Chen defeated compatriot Lin once again in Sydney and should be brimming with confidence ahead of the big final. With the ongoing tournament being the last Superseries fixture before BWF World Championships in August, both shuttlers, who have similar playing styles, will not want to end up on the losing side today.
When and where to watch live
The Men's singles final between Kidambi Srikanth and Chen Long is set to begin at 3pm local time, 10.30am IST.
Star Sports 2 and Star Sports HD2 will show the Australian Open badminton final action live in India. The matches can also be watched by live streaming online on Hotstar.
