Well done: Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah hugging each other after beating Setyana Mapasa-Angela Yu.
KUALA LUMPUR: Women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah are gaining confidence after booking their spot in the semi-finals of the Malaysian Masters.
World No. 13 Pearly-Thinaah were in commanding form when they sent Australia’s world No. 30 Setyana Mapasa-Angela Yu packing with a 21-16, 21-8 in just 31 minutes at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
The former have now reached the last-four stage for the first time this year and are out to continue their good run.
“It was a good win for us today (yesterday). We knew our opponents had upset several top seeds in their previous tournaments and we prepared well to face them,” said Pearly.
“So, we are really happy to get this win.”
Thinaah said: “We felt really positive on court. It has been some time since we reached the semi-final, so this is a good achievement for us but we don’t want to stop here.
“We want to do even better. We need to keep this momentum going.”
Pearly-Thinaah are now just one win away from reaching their second consecutive final in the tournament after finishing runners-up to South Korea’s Baek Ha-na-Lee So-hee last year.
Standing in their way in the last four today is another Korean pair, world No. 26 Lee Yu-lim-Shin Seung-chan.
Pearly-Thinaah have a slight advantage over the Koreans after beating them in their only meeting before this in the Japan Masters last November.
“We have beaten the Korean pair once but it was a tough match,” said Pearly.
“It will not be easy this time too and we need to prepare well.”
Pearly-Thinaah last made it into the final in the Hong Kong Open last September where they finished second best to Indonesia’s Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Ramadhanti.
