PETALING JAYA: M. Thinaah has vowed to be more aggressive as she looks to build on her encouraging performance with Pearly Tan at the recently concluded Malaysian Masters.
The national women’s doubles shuttler came close to capturing her first title of the year last week before narrowly losing 20-22, 21-8, 17-21 to South Korea’s world No. 2 Baek Ha-na-Lee So-hee in an epic final at the Axiata Arena.
Despite the defeat, world No. 11 Pearly-Thinaah received lots of praise for their battling performances throughout the tournament and the latter is out to keep up the good work.
“We learnt a lot in the tournament and we hope to maintain our performances after this,” said Thinaah.
“We want to be more aggressive to win points and keep improving our strategy.”
Thinaah also assured that physically, she was back to normal after nearly vomiting due to exhaustion on court at the end of the final.
The 25-year-old and Pearly had played for more than an hour in all their matches from the second round onwards.
The final had lasted 101 minutes while Pearly-Thinaah had to battle for 111 minutes to subdue Japan’s world No. 8 Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota in the last eight.
The former also were involved in a record-breaking rally that had 211 shots and lasted more than three minutes in their win over another Japanese pair Rena Miyaura-Ayako Sakuramoto in the second round.
“I’ve never experienced this (nearly vomiting due to exhaustion) before on court,” said Thinaah.
“The shuttle was slow and this is one of the reasons for the long rallies in the tournament.
“I’ve played in courts where the shuttle had been slow but now everyone’s game is also improving.
“My condition though is good now and I’ve resumed training.”
Pearly-Thinaah’s next assignment is the Singapore Open from June 6-11 where they will open their campaign against Japan’s Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi.
A win will likely see Pearly-Thinaah face Indonesia’s world No. 4 Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Ramadhanti.
