No sweat: Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah downed home pair Chu Wing Chi-Yu Yi Kiu 21-9, 21-9 in just 25 minutes. — AFP
PETALING JAYA: Women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah have already etched their names in the history books with numerous records over six years together, and the Hong Kong Open now offers them the chance to add another by becoming the first Malaysian women’s pair to defend the title.
Fresh from their World Championships runners-up finish, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah began their Hong Kong Open campaign in convincing fashion with a 21-9, 21-9 win over home pair Chu Wing Chi-Yu Yi Kiu in just 25 minutes.
It was a gulf in class with the Malaysians ranked world No. 2 against the world No. 848 duo, but the dominant display underlined Pearly-Thinaah’s superiority and sent a clear message to their rivals that they remain serious contenders for the podium despite only wrapping up an exhausting campaign in Paris just 10 days ago.
They will continue their campaign in the second round against the winners of the clash between China’s Chen Qingchen-Keng Shuliang and Indonesia’s Febriana Kusuma-Meilysa Puspitasari.
For the record, when Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah clinched the Hong Kong Open title last year by defeating China’s Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning, it marked a historic moment for Malaysian badminton as they became the first women’s pair from the country to win the title since the tournament’s inception in 1982.
Should they go all the way again, it will stand as yet another breakthrough.
In the 43-year history of the tournament, only a handful of women’s doubles pairs have managed to defend their titles, with most of them coming from China.
Among them were Lin Ying-Guan Weizhen, who triumphed in 1988 and 1989, and Yang Wei-Zhang Jiewen, who repeated the feat in 2005 and 2006.
Pearly-Thinaah had already made history as Malaysia’s first-ever women’s doubles medallists at the World Championships after claiming silver.
Last year, they made history by becoming the first Malaysian women’s doubles pair to reach the Olympic semi-finals in Paris but narrowly missed out on a bronze medal, losing to Japan’s Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida.
In 2022, they also broke new ground when they captured the French Open title, the first Malaysian women’s doubles pair to do so.
