All smiles: M. Thinaah and Pearly Tan posing on the podium with South Koreans Kong Hee-yong-Kim Hye-jeong. — AP
PETALING JAYA: From a first round exit to reaching a final.
Women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah are happy with their transformation within just a month.
Hopes were high on Pearly-Thinaah in the Malaysian Open but they suffered a disappointing defeat to Indonesia’s new pairing Siti Fadia Ramadhanti-Lanny Tria in their opening match.
The world No. 7 pair though showed great resilience to overcome the setback and reach the Indonesian Masters final.
Yesterday, Pearly-Thinaah battled hard before narrowly going down 12-21, 21-17, 18-21 to South Korea’s Kim Hye-jeong-Kong Hee-yong in 74 minutes at Istora Senayan in Jakarta.
Despite missing out on their first title of the year, it was an encouraging outing for the Malaysian duo.
Pearly-Thinaah also made it into the last four of the Indian Open last week before losing to the same opponents in straight games.
“I’m not happy with this runners-up finish but I’m happy with today’s (yesterday) match compared with last week and the first week in the Malaysian Open,” said Pearly.
“In Malaysia, we played quite bad, so we actually have been a bit down and disappointed. It was quite hard for us to come back so fast from there.”
Thinaah then opened up further on the difficulties she and Pearly faced over the past few weeks and how they overcame them.
“We had expected to start the new year very well especially on home ground. Since we didn’t start well, we were quite worried,” said Thinaah.
“During training, there were more bad days than good days for us but we kept motivating each other and kept the fire burning.
“We didn’t want to give up just because there were bad days. That’s not how it works. Throughout the first week in Malaysia and second week in India, there were still ups and downs.
“We are still finding our momentum. We really gave it our all this week. We did what we said we will. Actions speak louder than words,” added Thinaah.
Thinaah also credited Pearly for having her back and vowed to keep improving after this.
“Pearly has really been there for me always. I’m very proud that she had my back,” said Thinaah.
“She did a really good job today (yesterday) but luck was on their side and the Koreans played very well too. This is just the second time we are meeting them and we are still learning how to beat them.
“Hopefully, next time it will be a better match for us. For now, we will just rest well.
“Pearly is celebrating Chinese New Year, so I hope this is something to be happy about for the holidays. We will definitely become stronger.”
Pearly-Thinaah last won a title in the Hong Kong Open last October.
The pair will now have a break from tournaments before returning to action in the prestigious All-England from March 11-16 in Birmingham.
