PETALING JAYA: Women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah had been trying every trick in the book to overcome new pairings formed after the Paris Olympic Games but without any success.
Yesterday though, world No. 4 Pearly-Thinaah cracked the code when they pulled off an impressive 21-14, 21-11 win over China’s new combo Chen Qingchen-Wang Tingge to reach the Thailand Open semi-finals.
Qingchen had captured gold with previous partner Jia Yifan in the Paris Games before teaming up with Tingge early this year and the new pair were expected to provide a stiff test for Pearly-Thinaah.
The Malaysians though turned in one of their best performances this year to send the duo packing in just 34 minutes at the Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok yesterday.
The win showed that they were getting better at formulating the right tactics to beat different opponents.
“We had a game plan and executed it well today (yesterday). Our rotation on court was also good. We have been working on these two aspects,” said Pearly in a post-match interview with the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
It was Pearly-Thinaah’s second consecutive win over a new pair in the tournament after they ousted Indonesia’s Siti Fadia Ramadhanti-Lanny Tria in the second round.
Fadia played with Apriyani Rahayu before combining with Lanny last year and the duo stunned Pearly-Thinaah in the Malaysian Open first round in January.
The latter though fought hard to come out on top and are slowly gaining in confidence.
“We are still not satisfied though. We had a lot of ups and downs this year, so I’m very happy that I have Thinaah by my side,” said Pearly.
“We really discussed a lot to improve our game play and be more consistent.”
Thinaah said: “We knew it would not be easy against the Chinese pair. We just wanted to focus on ourselves and prepare well.
“The match may only have been 34 minutes but there were some intense rallies. We are happy to be on the winning side today and we hope to keep moving forward.”
Pearly-Thinaah will be tested again in the last four today when they face Japan’s Rui Hirokami-Sayaka Hobara.
The Japanese pair are only playing in their second tournament together after the Taiwan Open last week but proved that they will be no pushovers after stunning India’s world No. 10 Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand in the second round.
Pearly-Thinaah though are keen to avoid an upset and make it into their second final of the year after finishing runners-up to South Korea’s Kim Hye-jeong-Kong Hee-yong in the Indonesian Masters in January.
Meanwhile, men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik also booked their spot in the semi-finals after easily beating teammates Yap Roy King-Wan Arif Wan Junaidi 21-12, 21-13.
Aaron-Wooi Yik will take on Thailand’s world No. 16 Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Kittinupong Kedren next for a place in the final. They have won the matches in the last two encounters.
The world No. 5 duo will be out to continue their good form after capturing the Asian Championship title in Ningbo, China, last month.
