No room for relief: Japan women’s doubles shuttlers Nami Matsuyama (right) and Chiharu Shida will end their partnership after the World Championships in Paris.
PETALING JAYA: The end of Japanese bogey pair Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida’s partnership should be a positive news for women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah but coach Rosman Razak is not celebrating.
World No. 3 Pearly-Thinaah have found Matsuyama-Shida a tough nut to crack, only winning once in their past 14 meetings against the latter.
The world No. 2 duo though will not be tormenting the Malaysians together much longer after announcing their decision to part ways after the World Championships from Aug 25-31 in Paris.
Rosman though does not believe Pearly-Thinaah will benefit much from their rivals’ split as Matsuyama-Shida could still provide a stern challenge for his charges with different partners.
“I don’t see a big advantage for Pearly-Thinaah in tournaments just because Matsuyama-Shida are going to split up,” said Rosman.
“They will likely still give us problems with different partners.
“Other countries can afford to split their top pairs because they have many strong players to form new partnerships.
“But it’s not the same for us. We only have Pearly-Thinaah currently and they are an open book for our rivals as they know we will not split our pair and try out different partnerships. So, everyone will always try to beat our pair.
“So, it’s better for us to focus on ourselves instead of looking at external things that are not in our control.”
Rosman is also wary of the threat posed by Matsuyama-Shida, who will be keen to end their partnership on a high, starting with their home Open which gets underway on Tuesday in Tokyo.
The duo will also compete in the China Open from July 22-27 in Changzhou before their last outing together in the world meet.
“Matsuyama-Shida will be out to do well in their last three tournaments together,” said Rosman.
“As a coach, I want my players to beat every opponent, not only this pair. We cannot afford to just focus on one pair as others are also strong.”
In the Japan Open, Matsuyma-Shida and Pearly-Thinaah, who are the second and third seeds respectively could clash in the semi-finals.
In the first round, the home favourites will play teammates Rui Hirokami-Sayaka Hobara while the Malaysians will face Bulgarian sisters Gabriela Stoeva-Stefani Stoeva.
