Lee and Nehwal take titles in Hong Kong

Malaysia’s world number one Lee Chong Wei put his Asian Games disappointment behind him to smash his way to the Hong Kong Open Super Series title Sunday, while Saina Nehwal won the women’s crown.

Top seed Lee, beaten by China’s Lin Dan in the final last month at the Games in Guangzhou, saw off Indonesia’s third-seeded Taufik Hidayat 21-19, 21-9 in little over 30 minutes at Queen Elizabeth Stadium.

The Malaysian has enjoyed a fine season on the Super Series tour, but cannot shed the tag of nearly man — he was also defeated by the mercurial Lin in the final at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Lin, Lee’s nemesis, pulled out of the Hong Kong meet citing fatigue and injury.

Nehwal, India’s golden girl and the second seed, stormed back from losing the opening game to China’s Asian Games gold medallist Wang Shixian to take the title 15-21, 21-16, 21-17 in 71 minutes of topsy-turvy play.

Starlet Nehwal, who clinched Commonwealth Games gold in New Delhi in October and is the only Indian player to have captured a Super Series trophy, also made small amends for her Asian Games flop.

She tumbled out in Guangzhou in the quarter-finals.

In the doubles, China’s Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang took the women’s crown and Denmark’s Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Christinna Pedersen the mixed doubles title.

South Korea’s Ko Sung-Hyun and Yoo Yeon-Seong defeated the Indonesian pair of Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan in three games to win the men’s doubles.

HONG KONG, Dec 12, 2010AFP