PETALING JAYA: Doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah gave a good fight but it was not good enough to beat their nemeses Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida of Japan in the World Tour Finals.
The duo went down 21-13, 17-21, 18-21 to the world No. 4 Japanese pair in their opening Group A match in the Finals in Hangzhou, China on Wednesday (Dec 11).
Pearly-Thinaah got off to a promising start when they won the opener but the Japanese pair refused to give in.
The Malaysians have only beaten them once in 11 meetings before this at the 2022 French Open, where they eventually went on to win the title.
"It was not easy to play against them but we had our advantages but we did not make full use of it," said Thinaah.
"We had a good lead in the second game but could not hold on to it. They did well."
The Malaysians will play India's Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand next on Thursday. Only the top two pairs in the group will make it to the semi-finals.
