India’s PV Sindhu and Sameer Verma failed to cross the last hurdles on Sunday after their incredible run in the 2016 Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Super-Series Tournament at Kowloon. Taiwan’s Tai Tzu Ying won the women’s crown while home star NG Ka Long Angus created history by becoming the first player from the host country to win the prestigious event. With the Danish women’s pair of Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna Pedersen defeating the Chinese duo of Huang Dongping and Li Yinhui in women’s doubles, China missed out on any title for the second Super-series in a row. The Chinese stars had failed similarly at the Thaihot China Open last week and the story continued at Hong Kong. There was an upset in men’s doubles final, when the unseeded Japanese pair of Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda defeated Denmark’s fourth seeded combo of Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen. The mixed doubles was won by Indonesians Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir.
The first final at Hong Kong Open on Sunday was the women’s singles. India’s PV Sindhu was facing Taiwan’s Tai Tzu Ying for the first time after their last meeting at 2016 Rio Games. Sindhu was brilliant in that match and she might have hoped of repeating that performance. But the Taiwanese star has since improved her game and it showed in her two back-to-back victories over world no.1 and Olympic gold winner Carolina Marin. As the match began, Tai was true to her current form and despite losing the first point of the match; she played a huge smash to lead 2-1 and jumped to 6-3 in no time. Though Sindhu leveled the score at 6-6, she looked under pressure. There was just one occasion in the first game, when Sindhu led 8-7; otherwise, it was Tai, who dictated terms. After leading 11-8 at the break, Tai continued forcefully and mounted to an 18-12 lead. The dominating Taiwanese allowed Sindhu just three more points as she pocketed the first game 21-15. Sindhu began the second game in a much better way and kept leading until 8-7. But the impeccable Tai went past the Indian and led 11-10 at the break. Sindhu didn’t play badly but Tai was definitely better on crucial points. Despite her best game, Sindhu failed to catch up with Tai, who held 4 match points at 20-16. She dropped one and closed out the match at 21-15, 21-17 in 41 minutes to win the women’s crown.