National women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah in action against China’s Jia Yifan-Zhang Shuxian in the semi-final match of Malaysian Masters at Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil on Saturday. — IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star
PETALING JAYA: Tactical tweaks under coach Rosman Razak are slowly but surely elevating women's doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah's game.
Rosman replaced Hoon Thien How as the women's doubles head coach in the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) last November and has been working hard to turn the national No. 1 pair into a more consistent duo.
And the work is starting to pay dividends as Pearly-Thinaah made it into their first ever World Tour Super 1000 final in the Indonesian Open.
ALSO READ: Pearly-Thinaah can walk with heads held high after agonising loss in final
The world No. 4 pair went down fighting 25-23, 12-21, 19-21 to China's world No. 1 Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning at the Istora Senayan in Jakarta yesterday but showed clear improvement after failing to even reach the last four in a Super 1000 tourney before this.
Despite competing in their fourth straight tournament, Pearly-Thinaah managed to battle hard until the end against the formidable Chinese duo before losing by the narrowest of margins.
The pair are also becoming more consistent and managed to keep up their intensity after capturing the Thailand Open title last month.
Pearly-Thinaah made it into the Malaysian Masters semi-finals and Singapore Open quarter-finals before achieving the personal milestone in Indonesia.
Rosman believes his charges' performance over the last four weeks has been all the more commendable as the pair have not let external issues distract them.
Pearly-Thinaah face an uncertain future in BAM as their contracts expired last December and they are still yet to sign new deals.
"A lot has happened over these past four weeks. Although, sometimes Pearly-Thinaah have not performed to their best but their willingness to try and adapt to tactical tweaks has brought a lot of positive changes," said Rosman.
"Their communication on court has also been very good and helped them a lot especially when they have been under pressure.
"We have been trying new strategies on court and while there have been plenty of positives, there is still room for improvement."
RESULTS
Finals
Men’s singles: Anders Antonsen (Den) bt Chou Tien-chen (Tpe) 22-20, 21-14.
Men's doubles: Kim Won-ho-Seo Seung-jae (Kor) bt Sabar Gutama-Moh Reza (Ina) 18-21, 21-19, 21-12.
Women’s singles: An Se-young (Kor) bt Wang Zhiyi (Chn) 13-21, 21-19, 21-15.
Women’s doubles: Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning (Chn) bt Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah (Mas) 23-25, 21-12, 21-19.
Mixed doubles: Thom Gicquel-Delphine Delrue (Fra) bt Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Supissara Paewsampran (Tha) 21-16, 21-18.
Semi-finals
Men’s singles: Anders Antonsen (Den) bt Shi Yuqi (Chn) 9-21, 21-18, 21-19; Chou Tien-chen (Tpe) bt Kunlavut Vitidsarn (Tha) 21-16, 23-21.
Men’s doubles: Sabar Gutama-Moh Reza (Ina) bt Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun (Mas) 21-18, 12-21, 21-18; Kim Won-ho-Seo Seung-jae (Kor) bt Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto (Ina) 21-18, 19-21, 23-21.
