PV Sindhu's gallant fight ends in agony, loses Hong Kong Open final

P V Sindhus gallant fight ended in agony as she suffered a second successive loss to world no 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei at the summit clash of the USD 400000 Hong Kong Super Series here today Playing her fifth straight tournament Sindhu who had a 37 headtohead record against Tai before the match never lacked in fitness and fought throughout the match before going down 1821 1821 to the defending champion in a 44minute womens singles final herePV Sindhu with her silver medal Pic PTIThis is Sindhus second loss in the four finals that she reached this season She had lost to Japans Nozomi Okuhara at the World Championship final while clinched two titles at India and Korea this year In the opening game which lasted 21 minutes Tai moved to a 30 lead early on before Sindhu made a good judgement at the baseline to log the first points However Tai unleashed her wide repertoire of strokes and varied the pace well to lead 7 2Sindhu then started to dominate the rallies by using her deep clears and drew the Taiwanese close to the net She used her reach to catch the shuttle early and placed it in difficult positions to narrow the deficit to 67 A deceptive net return gave Tai a point The Taiwanese then produced a smash on the deep backhand corner of Sindhu and moved to 107 Sindhu unleashed a body smash to perfection before Tais flat straight return bamboozled the Indian At the break the Taiwan had a three point advantage After the breather Tai committed a couple of unforced errors at both the flanks while Sindhu came up with a backhand return near the net to reduce the margin to 1013 but Tai quickly recovered to extend her domination to 1613 Sindhu tried to anticipate her deceptive rival and put Tai in awkward positions a few times but she hit long or at the net to allow the Taiwanese lead 1814 A gritty Sindhu however kept breathing down her neck and soon clawed back at 1818 During the next rally the string of the Sindhus racquet broke and Tai unleashed a smash which left the Indian frustrated Tai produced another smash on Sindhu backhand to move to game point She then grabbed the opening game after winning a video referral when her shuttle landed on the lineIn the second game Sindhu was left to deal with some indecision due to the sidewise drift which gave early advantage to Tai but the gritty Indian levelled the score at 44 with a superb return at her rivals forehand The duo moved to 77 before Tai hit wide and lost a referral too Sindhu produced a overhead backhand flick a deceptive return at the forecourt and another smash to move to 107 before entering the lemon break with a twopoint advantage when Tai found the net However Tai dominated the proceedings after the interval despite a fighting Sindhu trying to snap at her heelsThe Indian lost a referral and then failed to retrieve a shot at the forecourt as Tai led 1211 At 1312 Sindhu was not allowed a video referral by the line judge and after that the match slipped away from the Indian even as Tai produced a stroke on Sindhus forehand to perfection With the Indian failing to finish the rallies it allowed Tai to lead 1712 Another weak return by Sindhu and Tai was leading 1812 The Indian produced a cross court smash to break the rhythm but she again hit longTai faltered at the net and then miscued a lift from the front court She then hit long as Sindhu conjured up hopes of a turn around moving to 1619 However a long rally ensued which ended with Sindhus lift going long and Tai earned the match point at 2016 Sindhu saved two match points before a perfect drop shotfrom Tai sealed the title for the Chinese Taipei shuttler