Fresh and raring to go: Pearly Tan sharing pointers with her partner M. Thinaah during training at the Academy Badminton Malaysia in Bukit Kiara.
PETALING JAYA: Women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah are pumped up to achieve a personal milestone in the All-England from March 11-16 in Birmingham.
Pearly-Thinaah have never reached the semi-finals in a World Tour Super 1000 competition and are out to end their wait in the prestigious tourney.
The world No. 6 pair were denied in the last eight in Birmingham thrice in 2021, 2022 and 2024 and hope to overcome the hurdle this time.
“Definitely, we want to go further than the quarter-finals this time as we have been stuck in this round for some time,” said Thinaah after a training session at the Academy Badminton Malaysia in Bukit Kiara yesterday.
“We are motivated to do better but at the same time, we don’t want to put too much pressure on ourselves. We just want to enjoy our game on court and give our very best.”
Pearly-Thinaah are determined to learn and improve from their past defeats in the quarter-finals which have all been in three games.
“In the past few losses, many times we were leading but lost the matches, so that was quite disappointing and heartbreaking,” said Thinaah.
“During those times, we tend to want to finish the game faster. We were not patient enough but we have been learning in tournaments as well as in training, so we hope to be more calm and patient during the crucial moments.”
For the record, Chin Eei Hui-Wong Pei Tty were the last Malaysian women’s doubles duo to make it into the last four in the All-England in the 2007 edition.
The draw for the tourney this time will be released on March 4.
Before the All-England, Pearly-Thinaah will first compete in the Super 300 Orleans Masters from March 4-9 in France.
The pair are refreshed and raring to go again after last playing in the Indonesian Masters in Jakarta last month where they finished runners-up to South Korea’s Kim Hye-jeong-Kong Hee-yong.
“We have not had a tournament for a month and we are quite excited to compete again in Europe,” said Thinaah.
“So far, our preparations are going well. We have been working on our rotation, attack and defence. Hopefully, these will be smooth for us in the tournaments.”
