KUALA LUMPUR: Women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah are in confident mood ahead of a mouthwatering showdown against China’s Jia Yifan-Zhang Shuxian in the Malaysian Masters semi-finals today.
Thailand Open champions Pearly-Thinaah continued their fine form by sweeping aside Indonesia’s world No. 9 Febriana Dwipuji-Amallia Cahaya 21-14, 21-14 in 34 minutes at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
The world No. 4 pair though will face a tougher test against Paris Olympics champion Yifan and her new partner Zhang Shuxian.
Pearly-Thinaah are brimming with confidence and are out to pull off a big win and make it into back-to-back finals.
“We are motivated and excited for the semi-finals as we are playing on home ground,” said Pearly.
“We want to stay firm on our game play, discuss more on court and be more confident.
“The Thailand Open win is already in the past and we are starting from zero again in this tournament, so we hope to keep getting better.”
Pearly-Thinaah are keen to gain revenge over Yifan-Shuxian after losing to the duo in the Orleans Masters quarter-finals in March.
Yifan and Shuxian have also been a thorn in the Malaysian pair’s flesh with their previous partners.
Yifan and her Olympic gold medal winning partner Chen Qingchen have beaten Pearly-Thinaah eight times in nine meetings while Shuxian and Zheng Yu have come out on top over the Malaysians in all five of their past encounters.
With the backing of the passionate home fans, Pearly-Thinaah have vowed to raise their game this time and find a way past Yifan-Shuxian.
Thinaah said: “No player wants to lose. We want to leave our past defeat behind us.
“For now, we need to get good rest and prepare well for the match tomorrow (today). We hope to maintain our positive form.”
Pearly-Thinaah have made it into the final in the tourney once in the 2023 edition where they came second to South Korea’s Baek Ha-na-Lee So-hee.
The pair reached back-to-back finals once before when they finished runners-up in the Korean Open and captured the Hong Kong Open title.
