Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei dealt a blow to PV Sindhu's quest for a second consecutive Superseries title by beating her 21-15, 21-17 in the final of the Hong Kong Open on Sunday.
Both the players started patchily, making a lot of errors. But then Ying, the third seed, took control and raced away to a 6-3 lead. Sindhu levelled the score at 7-7 with a delightful drop shot.
Ying's deceptive strokes and shot variations again took her ahead at the first changeover. Ying, one of the more unusual players on the circuit with her love of risky shots, won eight points in a row to extend her lead to 15-8. She won the first game in 18 minutes.
Sindhu, who had not played any seeded players on her way to the final, struggled to match the variety in Ying's game.
Sindhu was dominant at the beginning of the second game and led 4-1 before Ying levelled the score with a couple of deceptive smashes. Though the players matched each other well, Sindhu struggled to read Ying's flicks and slices in the second game.
Ying's failure to put away an easy smash saw Sindhu leading 11-10 at the changeover. Some silken touches at the net then left Sindhu confused and saw Ying go 15-12 ahead.
Sindhu won a cracking 32-shot rally to bring down the deficit to 16-18. But Ying clinched her second title in Hong Kong soon with a backhand slice. The match lasted 41 minutes. This was the sixth Superseries title win of Ying's career.
Ying also improved her career head-to-head record against Sindhu to 5-3. Earlier in the year, the player from Chinese Taipei had won the Indonesia Open and made the finals of the Denmark and Malaysia Superseries events.
Sindhu is the first Indian woman to make the final in Hong Kong since Saina Nehwal won the tournament in 2010. She had won the China Open last week.
Both Sindhu and Ying have qualified for the season-ending World Superseries Finals in Dubai, which will start on December 14.