PETALING JAYA: Women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah face a tricky last eight clash against China’s Chen Qingchen-Wang Tingge as they bid to continue their good form in the Thailand Open.
Pearly-Thinaah battled hard to overcome Indonesia’s world No. 26 Siti Fadia Ramadhanti-Lanny Tria 21-17, 10-21, 21-15 in 56 minutes at the Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok yesterday.
It was a confidence boosting win for the world No. 4 pair after they lost to Fadia-Lanny in the Malaysian Open first round in January.
Pearly-Thinaah, who face an uncertain future in the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) are set for final talks regarding their contracts with the national body after the tournament but first, they intend to keep their run going in Thailand.
“We are very happy to beat the Indonesians because we lost to them in our last meeting in Malaysia,” said Pearly in a post-match interview with the Badminton World Federation.
“This win really means a lot to us but there is still room for improvement. We need to be more consistent and play better in the next match.”
Thinaah said: “We didn’t want to think about our previous defeat to them as it was not a good start for both of us especially on home ground.
“For today’s (yesterday) match, we just wanted to go in with confidence and encourage each other during each point. That really worked out well for both of us and we hope to keep this momentum going.”
Pearly-Thinaah though will not have it easy against Qingchen-Tingge next.
Qingchen captured gold in the Paris Olympics last August with previous partner Jia Yifan and boasts a good record with the latter against the Malaysians, only losing once in nine past meetings.
The 27-year-old will be keen to continue her good run against Pearly-Thinaah with Tingge this time.
Pearly-Thinaah will need to be on their toes to deny the Chinese duo and justify their status as the tournament’s top seeds.
The pair are Malaysia’s last hope in the women’s doubles in the competition after world No. 25 Teoh Mei Xing-Go Pei Kee went down 18-21, 7-21 to Indonesia’s world No. 51 Meilysa Trias-Rachel Allessya.
