KUALA LUMPUR: England's Sarah-Jane Perry denied Nicol David her first title of the 2017-18 PSA Tour season with an 8-11, 8-11, 11-7, 14-12, 11-7 victory in the Netsuite Open final in San Francisco on Saturday.
Former World No 1 Nicol had a match point opportunity in the fourth game to seal a first tournament win since Colombia in March, but was unable to hold off a rampaging Perry who stormed back from two games down to claim the title.
World No 6 Perry's victory was her fourth in a row against Nicol and levels their all-time head-to-head record at 4-4.
World No 5 Nicol, who was seeking her 82nd career title on the PSA Tour, started strongly in her first final in San Francisco in two appearances.
Perry, however, recovered from a 6-4 deficit to win the third game and the third seed sped to a 6-0 lead in the fourth game only for Nicol to catch up and inch ahead 8-7.
But Perry then held three game points, and after saving a match point at 12-11, converted her third opportunity to force a deciding game.
Perry controlled the last game from the start, never trailing, although Nicol got to within a point at 6-5 before the former pulled away to victory.