PETALING JAYA: There was no joy for women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah this time in Paris.
Pearly-Thinaah had created history by becoming the first Malaysians in the women’s doubles to capture the French Open in 2022 but could not get past the first round in the ongoing edition.
The world No. 15 came from behind to win the opening game 21-18 against China’s world No. 5 Zhang Shuxian-Zheng Yu but could not maintain their performance and lost the next two games 16-21, 12-21 at the Adidas Arena in Paris on Wednesday.
Pearly and Thinaah were competing in the tournament for the first time since their 2022 triumph after they were forced to miss last year’s edition due to the former’s injury and faced a tough task against the Chinese duo.
Shuxian-Zheng Yu had reached the finals in the Malaysian, Indian Opens and Indonesian Masters so far this year and have never lost to Pearly-Thinaah, winning all their past four meetings.
The latter have also been struggling for form this year and suffered early round exits in both the Malaysian and Indian tourneys before making it to the quarter-final in Indonesia.
Pearly-Thinaah though showed good fighting spirit to come back from 12-16 and 14-18 down to win the first game against the Chinese duo.
Shuxian-Zheng Yu refused to throw in the towel and stepped up their game to come out on top in the next two games.
Thinaah admitted that she and Pearly still had a lot of work ahead of them to regain their old form.
“It’s great to compete again in Europe but there are still things that we need to improve on as a pair,” said Thinaah in a post-match interview with the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
“In the first game, we were really patient in our defence and attack and these are the main points that we need to work on and bring forward for our next tournament,” she added.
Pearly-Thinaah will next turn their attentions to the All-England in Birmingham from March 12-17 where they will open their campaign against fellow Malaysians Vivian Hoo-Lim Chiew Sien.
The world No. 36 independent pair also endured a miserable outing in Paris after suffering a shock 15-21, 15-21 defeat at the hands of unheralded Australians Setyana Mapasa-Angela Yu.
