Hong Kong: Taiwan’s World No. 3 women’s singles player Tai Tzu-Ying won her second Superseries title of the season on Sunday by beating Olympic silver medalist P.V. Sindhu of India 21-15, 21-17 in 41 minutes to lift the Hong Kong Open title.
This victory was sweet revenge for Tai after her defeat to Sindhu when the Indian player breezed past Tai 21-13, 21-15 in the Round of 16 of the badminton women’s singles at the Olympic Games.
In Sunday’s final, Tai stayed patient in long rallies while displaying her exceptional writs control throughout the match by throwing a lot of trick shots against Sindhu. Despite Sindhu’s never give up spirit, but her inability to find opportunity to score proved to be the difference.
“Tai played well today, and it was a good game,” said Sindhu after the match.
Sunday’s victory allowed Tai to surpass Rio Olympic Champion Carolina Marin, of Spain to become World No. 1 in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings that will be released next Thursday. Tai also won the Hong Kong Open title in 2014 by beating Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the final.
“I preferred to take it easy during my matches. I rarely put a lot of pressure on myself,” said Tai.
Denmark’s Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christina Pedersen of Denmark left the badminton powerhouses China empty handed again by beating Huang Dongping and Li Yinhui in the women’s doubles final 21-19, 21-10. China also did not win any titles at the China Open that was held in Fuzhou last week.
After winning the China Open last week, Rio Olympic Games mixed doubles gold medalists, Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir of Indonesia secured their second consecutive title in two weeks by outlasting compatriots Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto 21-19, 21-17 in 42 minutes to earn the Hong Kong Open trophy.
