Bring on the men: Pearly (left) and Thinaah have started sparring with Indonesians Ade Yusuf and Gerardo Rizqullah Hafidz.
PETALING JAYA: National director of coaching Rexy Mainaky has brought in two former Indonesian international shuttlers to spar with top women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah.
Ade Yusuf, who was ranked world No. 16 with Wahyu Nayaka in 2015 in the men’s doubles, and Gerardo Rizqullah Hafidz, also a former Indonesian men’s doubles player, have started sparring with Pearly-Thinaah on Monday.
Rexy said Ade, 31, and Gerardo, 21, should be able to provide quality sparring for Pearly-Thinaah until they depart for Badminton World Federation (BWF) events in Europe on March 1.
The huge gap in quality between Pearly-Thinaah and the rest of the national women’s doubles pairs, is a reason why Rexy feels the senior pair needs quality sparring partners to perform consistently.
The former Indonesian Olympic champion also revealed that Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh, Road to Gold (RTG) coordinator Datuk Stuart Ramalingam and former ace Datuk Lee Chong Wei have often brought up the issue of Pearly-Thinaah’s inconsistency in previous meetings.
“We are not belittling our women’s doubles but there is definitely a gap between them and Pearly-Thinaah. So, the quality sparring partners are crucial in helping them to prepare well for the European tournaments,” said Rexy.
“Ade and Gerardo are former Indonesian national players and can provide quality sparring for Pearly-Thinaah so that they can perform better against the top pairs in events like the All England next month.
“It is very comfortable for them when training with their teammates but they tend to struggle against top pairs as they are a notch above.
“Pearly-Thinaah can improve through these sparring sessions and with better quality, they can also face the top pairs with confidence.
“I have also been asked about the Pearly-Thinaah’s inconsistency during RTG meetings and I believe this is probably the right way to elevate the pair’s level and achieve better results.”
The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) also recently hired Mohd Miftah, who used to work under Mathias Boe with the Indian men’s doubles squad, as Hoon Thien How’s assistant in the women’s doubles department.
World No. 14 Pearly-Thinaah will play in the French Open, a test tournament for the Paris Olympics, from March 5-10 and All England from March 12-17.
