KUALA LUMPUR: Women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah need to find a solution soon to overcome newly formed combinations.
World No. 6 Pearly-Thinaah were beaten 21-19, 14-21, 13-21 by Indonesia’s Siti Fadia Ramadhanti-Lanny Tria in the first round of the Malaysian Open at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
Fadia, who previously won the title with Apriyani Rahayu, partnered Lanny last October.
Pearly-Thinaah defeated Fadia-Apriyani in the Paris Olympics last August but found it harder to handle the new pairing.
After the Olympics, there have been many reshuffle in partnerships and the Malaysians also struggled against Japan’s new pair Yuki Fukushima-Mayu Matsumoto in the first round of the Japan Masters and lost 9-21, 21-14, 23-21.
Pearly-Thinaah also needed three games to overcome another Japanese duo Arisa Igarashi-Ayako Sakuramoto.
Pearly-Thinaah admitted that they found Fadia-Lanny’s unpredictability tough to handle.
“We were following our opponents’ game play in the third game and this is what caused us to lose at the end,” said Thinaah.
“We know each players individually as they have partnered others before.
“But when they came together, their unpredictable attacking shots disrupted our game play.
“We need to go back and discuss with our coach on how to overcome this.”
The defeat meant that Pearly-Thinaah’s disappointing record in the home Open continues.
The pair have never gone past the early rounds since making their debut in the 2022 edition.
Pearly-Thinaah need a remedy soon against new pairs or will find it tough to reach the latter rounds in tournaments.
It was also the end of the road for Go Pei Kee-Teoh Mei Xing after they went down 17-21, 10-21 to China’s Jia Yifan-Zhang Shuxian.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s wait for a breakthrough at the Malaysian Open ended as mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei became the first representatives to advance to the second round yesterday.
In their first-round match yesterday, Tang Jie-Ee Wei showcased their class as the tournament’s third seeds when they blew awat Taiwan’s Wu Hsuan-yi-Yang Chu-yun 21-8, 21-9 in just 27 minutes.
Awaiting them in the second round is another Taiwanese pair, Ming Che-lu-Hung En-tzu, who earlier caused an upset by eliminating Malaysia’s Hoo Pang Ron and Cheng Su Yin.
