Dubai: Akane Yamaguchi defeated PV Sindhu of India to claim her maiden title at the season-ending Dubai World Superseries Finals 2017 yesterday.
The world No.2, who became Japan's first women's singles winner in the event since Nozomi Okuhara in 2015, rallied to win 15-21, 21-12, 21-19 in 94 gruelling minutes at the Hamdan Sports Complex.
It was another tough win for Yamaguchi, who also needed three games to overcome Thailand's world No.6 Ratchanok Intanon in the semi-finals on Saturday.
World No.3 Sindhu defeated the eighth-ranked Chinese Chen Yufei 21-15, 21-18 in the other last-four match on Saturday night.
The result was another major heartbreak for Rio Olympics silver medallist Sindhu. The 22-year-old from Hyderabad lost to Okuhara in the final of the world championships in August.
"It was a very challenging match as we all thought it would be," said Yamaguchi, who took home the US$80,000 (2,640,000 baht) winner's cheque. "Thank you for all the support from the fans in the stadium and also my fans back home. I hope you all enjoyed the match."
Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia stunned world champions Liu Cheng and Zhang Nan of China 21-16, 21-15 in just 39 minutes to win the men's doubles title.
Earlier, China's Zheng Siwei and Chen Qingchen defeated Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet of Hong Kong 21-15, 22-20 to claim the mixed doubles crown.
In the last two finals of the $1 million (33 million baht) tournament, the women's doubles decider was an all-Japanese affair between Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota and Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto, while top-ranked and defending champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark was scheduled to play former world No.1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in the men's singles showdown.