Pearly Tan (R) and Thinaah Muralitharan of Malaysia hit a return against Apriyani Rahayu and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti of Indonesia during their womens doubles final match of the Hong Kong Open badminton tournament in Hong Kong on September 17, 2023. (Photo by Peter PARKS / AFP)
PETALING JAYA: Sometimes things go your way and sometimes they don’t.
Women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah have experienced unsatisfactory record in the World Tour finals but are keen to stick to their strategy in the Thailand Open title match today.
Pearly-Thinaah have reached eight finals before this but have only won three titles - the 2021 Swiss Open, 2022 French Open and 2024 Hong Kong Open. French Open was their biggest career title being a Super 700.
The pair’s aggressive and intelligent game play has so far paid dividends in Thailand and helped them to beat Japan’s Rui Hirokami-Sayaka Hobara 21-18, 21-12 in the last four at the Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok yesterday.
After a closely fought first game, world No. 4 Pearly-Thinaah raised their game in the second to wrap up the match in 45 minutes.
Thinaah said that standing firm on their strategy helped them come through in the second game.
“In the first game, our opponents pressured us into making simple mistakes and that made it a close fight,” said Thinaah in a post match interview with the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
“In the second game, we told each other to stand firm on how we wanted to play and that really helped us to win.”
Pearly said: “Reaching the final boosts our confidence as we have had a lot of ups and downs. We discussed a lot about our game play which sometimes works and sometimes does not
“I’m very happy that things have worked out well in this tournament so far. We hope to keep this momentum for tomorrow’s (today’s) match.”
Pearly-Thinaah have made it into their second final this year after finishing runners-up to South Korea’s Kim Hye-jeong-Kong Hee-yong in the Indonesian Masters in January.
Standing in their way to the title are another Korean pair Jeong Na-eun-Lee Yeon-woo.
Based on the head-to-head records, Pearly-Thinaah hold a slight advantage after coming out on top over the Koreans in their only previous meeting at the Orleans Masters second round in March.
On facing Na-eun-Yeon-woo again, Pearly said: “We have played the Koreans once and they are a strong upcoming scratch pair.
“As usual, we just want to focus on our game play and hope this works for tomorrow (today).”
Pearly-Thinaah’s last title came in the Hong Kong Open last September.
Men’s singles: Kunlavut Vitidsarn (Tha) bt Loh Kean Yew (Sin) 21-10, 21-12.
Men’s doubles: Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik (Mas) bt Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Kittinupong-Kedren (Tha) 21-17, 21-13; William Kryger-Christian Faust (Den) bt Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto (Ina) 21-13, 21-12.
Women’s singles: Chen Yufei (Chn) bt Tomoka Miyazaki (Jpn) 21-11, 23-21; Pornpawee Chochuwong (Tha) bt Supanida Katethong (Tha) 21-9, 21-18.
Women’s doubles: Pearly-Thinaah (Mas) bt Rui Hirokami-Sayaka Hobara (Jpn) 21-18, 21-12; Jeong Na-eun-Lee Yeon-woo (Kor) bt Hsu Ya-ching-Sung Yu-hsuan (Tpe) 21-17, 21-19.
