Pure joy: Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah celebrating.
KUALA LUMPUR: Top women’s pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah are not going to allow pressure to weigh down their performance as they made a confident start to their Malaysian Masters campaign at the Axiata Arena.
Pearly-Thinaah, the world No. 11, overcame Bulgarian siblings Gabriela Stoeva-Stefani Stoeva 21-17, 21-14 to clear their first hurdle in 40 minutes.
The Malaysian pair had earlier declared that they have started enjoying their game again after the Sudirman Cup campaign, where Malaysia reached the semi-finals in Suzhou, China, last week, and had continued their momentum at home.
Pearly-Thinaah had suffered confidence crisis after winning their first Badminton World Federation (BWF) tour title, the French Open, in October last year and their form in tournaments started to suffer after that.
They fell in the first round of the Malaysian Open to the Stoeva siblings while they also had to withdraw from the Asian Championships in Dubai last month due to Pearly’s illness. However, yesterday was an indication good times are back for them.
Thinaah said they will not let pressure dictate terms again.
“Enjoying our game is something we want to focus on. We did not do that in the past few tournaments and were putting too much pressure on ourselves,” said Thinaah.
“We know the Olympic qualifying period starts with this tournament but we will keep supporting each other and keep the momentum going.”
Pearly-Thinaah will meet Rena Miyaura-Ayaka Sakuramoto of Japan, who overcame Chloe Birch-Lauren Smith of England 21-12, 21-8, in the second round tomorrow.
While the Malaysians are playing with renewed confidence, Pearly hinted that it may take some time to achieve the kind of performance that helped them win the French Open and the Commonwealth Games gold in Birmingham last year.
“I’m not sure if it (the form) is back but I’m sure that I am doing the best that I can right now,” said Pearly.
Meanwhile, another Malaysian pair in the main draw Vivian Hoo-Lim Chiew Sien could not join Pearly-Thinaah into the second round after losing 21-13, 21-18 to Maiken Fruergaard-Sara Thygesen yesterday.
