PETALING JAYA: Defeating a Chinese pair is never easy, especially on the World Championships final stage.
But women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah gave their all to contain world No. 1 Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning in Sunday’s (Aug 31) final, even as their opponents held every advantage, including confidence from past encounters.
They went down 14-21, 22-20, 17-21 but not after giving their strong opponents a run for their money in an 83-minute battle.
And that has given more confidence for Pearly-Thinaah as they look forward to the future with more confidence.
“There are definitely a lot of positives to take away, especially since this is one of the biggest tournaments outside of the Olympics. It has boosted our confidence and will motivate us to perform even better in future competitions.
“I think we also had it in us that we didn’t want to give away easy points to our opponents. As long as the shuttle didn’t hit the ground, we were determined to fight for every point. But towards the end, the opponents did really well to put pressure on us," said Thinaah to Badminton World Federation.
Pearly-Thinaah also praised Shengshu-Tan Ning for delivering a highly competitive performance in the final.
Despite the defeat, the Malaysians accepted the result with grace, knowing they had already made history - not just for their careers but for Malaysian badminton - becoming the first women’s doubles pair from the country to reach a World Championships final and win a medal.
“I think, to be honest, we are really happy to have made it to the final of the World Championships. But of course, we are also a little disappointed that we couldn’t take the title.
"Credit must go to our opponents as they played really well, put us under pressure and stayed very composed in their shots.
"This is something we can definitely learn from them. Overall, though, it has been a good week for us here," she added.
