Golden chance: National women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah have a good chance to justify their top billing at Japan Masters. — IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star
PETALING JAYA: Women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah (pic) will be out to strengthen their position at the top of the World Tour Finals rankings with a good show in the Japan Masters starting on Tuesday in Kumamoto.
Pearly-Thinaah reached No. 1 in the Tour Finals rankings for the first time after a fine season and will be keen to continue their fiery form.
The world No. 2 pair captured the Thailand Open and Arctic Open titles this year and finished runners-up in the World Championships, Indonesian Open, Japan Open and Indonesian Masters.
Pearly-Thinaah have accumulated 104,860 points and are currently just ahead of China’s second-placed Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning (103,150) in the Tour Finals rankings.
The duo are the top seeds in the Japan Masters in the absence of Shengshu-Tan Ning, who have decided to skip the tourney.
Pearly-Thinaah will be eyeing their third title of the year and will open their campaign against a pair from the qualifying round.
The combo have a good chance to close the gap to Shengshu-Tan Ning, who are still ranked No. 1 in the world rankings.
The Chinese duo have collected 110,884 points while Pearly-Thinaah have 91,316 points.
A good show will put the Malaysians in good stead ahead of the prestigious Tour Finals from Dec 17-21 in Hangzhou.
The pair have never progressed past the group stage before in the season-ending competition and will be keen for a breakthrough as they seek to end their stellar year on a high.
In the Japan tourney, Pearly-Thinaah will be joined by youngsters Ong Xin Yee-Carmen Ting.
Xin Yee-Carmen will take on Taiwan’s Hsieh Pei-shan-Hung En-tzu in the first round.
National No. 2 pair Teoh Mei Xing-Go Pei Kee though have pulled out of the competition due to the latter’s ankle injury.
