Olympic Silver medallist PV Sindhu's brilliant run at the BWF World Super Series Final came to an end after she suffered a narrow defeat against World No 5 Korean Sung Ji-Hyun in the women's singles semi-finals, here on Saturday.
It was a contest between Sindhu's power and Sung Ji's precision and unfortunately the Indian failed to break the Korean's impregnable defence and went down fighting 15-21, 21-18, 16-21 in a thrilling 76-minute contest.
Sindhu, who had scripted a thrilling come-from-behind victory over Sung en route to her maiden China Open Super Series Premier title, could not match the Korean's excellent court coverage and deft touch.
Her strategy seemed to work as she lead 10-7 after battling for every point early on in the contest. lagging 11-14, Sindhu narrowed the deficit to 14-15 with the help of her sharp smashes and half smashes but Sung always found a way to bounce back by mixing her strokes as she lead 18-14.
The Korean then sealed the game with a flick at the nets.
Sung, who remained unbeaten in the Group stage, once again took a small 2-0 lead early on in the second game but Sindhu soon picked up three points to lead 3-2 and 6-5 in the initial stages.
The duo continued their duel after the Interval and tested each other with some extraordinary strokes. They moved neck and neck from 11-11 till 17-17. But Sindhu then came up with an accurate net return to grab the lead again and then reached the game point after winning the longest rally of the match. Another rally and Sindhu produced a stinging smash and took the match to the decider.
In the deciding game, Sung stood up front to catch hold on the shuttle early and tried to push Sindhu to the back and soon raced away to a 4-0 lead.
After the change of ends, Sindhu grabbed a couple of points but Sung bounced back with her soft touch to come up with forecourt winners and lead 15-9 at one stage.
Two superb smashes by the Indian was followed by another net error as Sung held five match points advantage which she converted with another winner at the first opportunity to seal her place in the finals.