Fiercer now, and fearless

PEARLY Tan and M. Thinaah are fitter, and fiercer now. And the women’s doubles shuttlers are reaping the rewards of finding their dynamic attacking style that has earned them plenty of plaudits.

It’s not something new. The pair’s eye catching style saw them capture the French Open title and gold in the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022.

However, they then started playing it safe for fear of making mistakes and their form suffered. Injuries to Pearly in 2023 also halted the pair’s momentum.

Now, a fitter Pearly and Thinaah are keen to continue playing aggressively in the world’s grandest stage, the Paris Olympics.

Pearly-Thinaah face the biggest match of their lives today when they take on South Korea’s world No. 10 Kim So-yeong-Kong Hee-yong for a place in semi-finals.

No Malaysian women’s pair has ever managed to reach last four in the Olympics, so Pearly-Thinaah know that they will create history if they beat So-yeong-Hee-yong.

Having survived the toughest group in the competition, the world No 12 will be ready for another difficult hurdle against the bronze medallists of the 2021 Tokyo Games.

Pearly-Thinaah, however, want to maintain their momentum after stunning Japan’s former two-time world champions Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara and Indonesia’s world No. 9 Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Ramadhanti in the group stage.

“From our last tournament, the Indonesian Open, we managed to rediscover our game play,” said Pearly.

“For some time now, we have been playing safe and were afraid of making mistakes but this did not reflect our true selves.

“So, we had lots of discussions with each others, our coaches and the support staff. I’m very happy that we managed to bring our game back at the right time.

“Reaching the quarter-finals is another step forward for us. Now, we have another match to look forward to and we need to prepare well,” added Pearly.

If Pearly-Thinaah do make it to the last four, they will likely go up against China’s world No. 1 Chen Qingchen-Jia Yifan in a repeat of their group match when the Chinese pair narrowly won 21-17, 22-20.

Qingchen-Yifan are hot favourites against Bulgarian sisters and world No. 21 Gabriela Stoeva-Stefani Stoeva in the quarter-finals.

For now, Pearly-Thinaah have their sights trained on So-yeong-Hee-yong, The Koreans hold a slight advantage on paper after beating the former in their only meeting before this, in the 2021 World Tour Finals.

Pearly-Thinaah, though, could spring a surprise if they can handle the pressure well and continue their new attacking style.

MALAYSIANS IN ACTION TODAY

Badminton

Men’s singles last 16

2:30pm: Lee Zii Jia

Women’s doubles quarter-final

2.30pm: Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah vs Kim So-yeong-

Kong Hee-yong (Kor)

Men’s doubles quarter-final

7pm: Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik vs Satwiksairag

Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty (Ind)

Golf

Men’s individual first round

3pm: Gavin Green

Sailing

Men’s dinghy

6.15pm: Khairulnizam Mohd Afendy

Women’s dinghy

9.35pm: Nur Shazrin Mohd Latif