National women’s doubles shuttler Pearly Tan (left) helping her partner M. Thinaah who fell down while 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: Women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah are slowly becoming a more complete pair.
This is national doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky’s assessment following the duo’s recent fine form.
Pearly-Thinaah rose to a career high No. 3 in the world after reaching their first ever World Tour Super 1000 final in the Indonesian Open in Jakarta earlier this month.
Although the pair missed out on the title, they pushed China’s world No. 1 Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning all the way before losing narrowly in three games.
Pearly-Thinaah also captured their first title of the year in the Super 500 Thailand Open last month.
Rexy believes the pair are becoming more all-rounded and hopes they can maintain their form.
“In doubles, we need a creator and a killer but you cannot train only for that. We also have to compete with opponents in midcourt and rear court. The rear court person should be able to play at the net, (and vice-versa), that makes it more enjoyable,” said Rexy in a recent interview with the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
“I can see they are getting there. It started early this year, they got better in the Indian Open, the Indonesian Masters, All-England, Thailand Open and Malaysian Masters. The big factor is they know themselves, their ability.
“A change happened when Pearly twisted her ankle at the All-England, and you could see Thinaah boosting her confidence.
“They have the feeling, they only need to get consistent in every tournament.”
Pearly-Thinaah have been more consistent this year after previously going through ups and downs.
The pair have reached at least the quarter-finals in all their competitions so far this year except in the Malaysian Open and Asian Championships where they suffered first-round exits.
Pearly-Thinaah made it into the last four in the Indian Open and Malaysian Masters and finished runners-up in the Indonesian Masters.
The pair’s improvement is timely with the prestigious World Championships just two months away from Aug 25-31 in Paris.
Before the world meet, Pearly-Thinaah will be looking to continue their good form in the Japan Open from July 15-20 and China Open from July 22-27.
