PETALING JAYA: Women's doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah's hopes of reaching the final of the Paris Olympics was dashed after they went down fighting to China's world No. 1 Chen Qingchen-Jia Yifan.
But they can certainly walk tall.
The world No. 12 pair gave the 2021 Tokyo Games silver medallists a run for their money before losing 12-21, 21-18, 15-21 in a thrilling 74-minute last four match at Adidas Arena in Port de la Chapelle.
It was Pearly-Thinaah's second defeat to the four-time world champions in the competition after also losing to the latter in the group stage.
The Malaysian duo though can be proud of their efforts as they were the only pair who managed to drag Qingchen-Yifan to three games in the tournament so far.
Pearly-Thinaah's medal hopes are also not over as they will now take on Japan's world No. 4 Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida in the bronze medal playoff match on Saturday (Aug 3).
The Japanese pair lost 16-21, 19-21 to China's world No. 3 Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning in another semi-final match.
With that, China have assured their first gold in badminton.
