Winning party: Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat (right) and Malaysia’s Muhammad Hafiz Hashim pose for photographs at the Yonex Sunrise India Open 2009 badminton tournament in Hyderabad, India, on Sunday. Second-seeded Taufik defeated Hashim 21-18, 21-19 on Sunday to clinch the India Open men’s singles title. AP/Mahesh Kumar A 
Second-seeded Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia defeated Muhammad Hafiz Hashim of Malaysia 21-18, 21-19 on Sunday to clinch the India Open men’s singles title, while top-seeded Pi Hongyan of France took the women’s event.
Taufik, winner of all previous six meetings with Hashim, exuded confidence in his strokes and succeeded in inducing errors from his Malaysian opponent.
“The score was close; winning a title is always very satisfying,” Taufik said.
“This win will give me a lot of confidence for the world championships at this venue in August. There’s a bit of drift inside the stadium here, so it takes time to get used to the shuttle in the high tosses. I think, I read the drift much better than him.”
Pi, ranked fourth in the world, rallied to beat fifth-seeded Julia Wang Pei Xian of Malaysia 17-21, 21-15, 21-14 in the women’s final.
Pi, whose last title came at the 2006 Singapore Open, is six years older than Wang and used her experience to slow the rallies with high tosses to the back court after having lost the opening game.
“Wang’s a very tough opponent. She beat me two years ago, but here I felt I was in control,” Pi said.
“It was tough to come back after losing the first game. I then decided to slow down the game, thinking it would suit me better.”
In the men’s doubles final, the experienced Malaysian duo of Choong Tan Fook and Lee Wan Wah defeated the new Singapore combination of Hendri Kurniawan Saputra and Hendra Wijaya 21-9, 21-11.
Ma Jin and Wang Xiao Li of China downed Vita Marissa and Nadya Melati of Indonesia 21-14, 21-13 for the women’s doubles title.
Marissa also teamed up with Flandy Limpele to beat V. Diju and Jwala Gutta of India in the mixed doubles final.
