Popov brothers Christo and Toma Junior booked their spots in Sunday’s final at YONEX German Open 2026 with contrasting wins.

Toma Junior was through his semifinal against Chi Yu Jen in relatively quick time, 21-19 21-15, but Christo was taken the distance by India Open winner Lin Chun-Yi. The fourth seed from Chinese Taipei nearly stole the match despite trailing 15-9 in the third. He caught up at 17 but top seed Christo was sharper at the end and came away victorious at 21-10 18-21 21-18.

Sunday’s final won’t be the first time the Popovs have faced off for a Super 300 title – they had played the HYLO Open 2024 final, which Christo won. The younger brother said he expected it to be a “quiet” final.

“Tired and happy,” Christo said. “Lin played well and there were just a few details at the end that made me win. There was high level play and I’m happy to win and especially sharing the podium with my brother, we’ve been hoping for it. It’s going to be a good battle tomorrow.

“It’s going to be a very strange match because we want to win but we don’t want to win against a member of the family. It’s going to be very silent on court, just trying to focus on the game. I hope we deliver a great match for people to watch. I hope to win of course as a personal goal but I think as a team it’s already a win.

“We are not used to playing each other at tournaments but we train together all the time, so it’s going to be a normal evening. We are happy for each other and there’s less pressure.”

Highlights

» Qualifiers Julien Maio/William Villeger’s dream run continued as they made their first final in over a year. The Frenchmen beat Chinese Taipei’s Chiu Hsiang Chieh/Wang Chi-Lin 21-17 21-18 and will take on Chen Bo Yang/Liu Yi.

» It was a good day for China, with all their semifinalists winning.  Among the winners was women’s singles top seed Wang Zhi Yi, who stopped eighth seed Tomoka Miyazaki 21-10 21-18.

→ Results

WHAT THEY SAID

“I got better in attack as the match progressed. He pushed me into deep corners and took advantage. We were both trying to play the same game. I was happy with my front court play, I really put him in danger and that gave me a lot of easy points.” – Toma Junior

“She’s a great player and very young. I just focused on myself and told myself to go for it. It was difficult in the second game. I’m happy I could do my best. I could adjust my game whenever there was difficulty.” – Wang