SHAH ALAM: Women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah’s partnership is here to stay.
National coaching director Rexy Mainaky has vowed to do everything he can to ensure Pearly-Thinaah stay together and regain their best form in time for the Paris Olympics which is only five months away.
Pearly-Thinaah have gone through a slump in form since finishing runners-up in the Hong Kong Open last September.
The pair have not reached the semi-finals in any of their outings since the Hong Kong tourney.
While Pearly was beset with injury problems last year that hampered her progress with Thinaah, the duo have rarely been able to consistently reproduce the electrifying form that saw them capture the French Open in 2022.
Rexy acknowledged that the duo’s form was worrying but is refusing to consider taking any drastic action such as splitting them up.
“I am worried about their form but we need to work together to overcome this,” said Rexy.
“I cannot say for certain that they can progress well or have a bright future as I’m not God but I will do everything in my power to get a tune out of them. That is my job.
“But the desire to improve and fight for a medal in the Olympics needs to come from them as well, not just from us coaches.”
Pearly-Thinaah were ranked as high as No. 5 in the world at the end of 2022 but have dropped to No. 14 since.
The pair suffered a new low after going down 14-21, 21-18, 15-21 to Indonesia’s world No. 30 Lanny Tria-Ribka Sugiarto in the quarter-finals of the Asia Team Championships at the Setia City Convention Centre yesterday.
It was Pearly-Thinaah second consecutive defeat in the tournament after losing to Thailand’s world No. 10 Jongkolphan Kititharakul-Rawinda Prajongjai in a group match.
Yesterday, Malaysia failed to advance to the semi-finals after losing 0-3 to Indonesia.
On the match against Indonesia, Rexy said: “Thinaah was playing too negatively. The opponents could see this and kept targeting her.
“She wanted to play perfectly today (yesterday) but sometimes things don’t go your way.
“As an experienced pair and with the quality that Pearly-Thinaah have, they should have overcome this and taken the opportunity to win.
“We have to discuss with them on what went wrong and help them improve.”
