Kowloon: India’s hopes of winning twin titles in the Hong Kong Open Super Series were dashed Sunday when PV Sindhu and national champion Sameer Verma lost their respective women’s and men’s finals in contrasting fashion here.
Sindhu, aiming for her second successive Super Series title, lost 15-21, 17-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying in a 41-minute match. Sameer on the other hand, went down 14-21, 21-10, 11-21 to local favourite Ng Ka Long Angus in a contest which lasted 50 minutes.
It was sweet revenge for Ying, who had lost to Sindhu most recently at the Rio Olympic Games. She now leads 5-3 in the head-to-head record against the Indian.
World No. 3 and fourth seed Ying was in command from the first game itself and produced a near-perfect all-round performance to be ahead 18-11. She maintained the lead and grabbed the opening game without much of a trouble. Sindhu’s problems compounded as her usually reliable net play deserted her the most when she needed it.
The second game was fought on a more even keel with Sindhu stepping it up slightly but Ying’s ability to retrieve almost everything that Sindhu threw at her stood out. The Taipei girl’s deft use of her wrist to control her shots was also admirable.
Sindhu led briefly at 11-10, but then Ying once more started dominating proceedings and won the game and the title without any problem.
In spite of her loss in the final, Sindhu said that she was happy with the way she had played in the last couple of weeks. “Good match overall, it was her day. She is a tricky player and today (Sunday) she was ahead of me at the crucial points. It’s been a good two tournaments,” stated the Hyderabadi shuttler.
In the men’s final, Sameer, up against local favourite Angus, played his heart out but ran out of steam in the third game. The marathon semifinal clash against Jan O Jorgensen seemed to have taken a toll on the Indian’s body.
Sameer started slowly and lost the first game in just 15 minutes. He was never in the lead as Angus controlled the pace of the game very well.
However, Sameer roared back in the next game with some fine strokes from the baseline. Angus was distinctly sluggish in this game and conceded a 10-19 lead. Sameer did not take his foot off the pedal and drew level to take the match into the third game.
However, the pendulum swung the other way in the decider and Angus broke away early to lead 7-3. Even though Sameer tried his best to claw back, the gap kept widening and the Hong Kong shuttler closed the match when a Sameer flick went long.
PTI