M. Thinaah and Pearly Tan. - Reuters
PETALING JAYA: Women’s doubles world runners-up Pearly Tan and M. Thinaah will need to stay alert against Indonesia’s Febriana Kusuma and Meliysa Puspitasari in the second round of the Arctic Open despite having enjoyed comfortable wins over them in the past.
Earlier, Pearly-Thinaah, who were last year’s finalists, had little trouble seeing off Denmark’s Natasja Anthonisen and Amalie Kudsk in the opening round yesterday.
The second seeds took just 32 minutes to wrap up a 21-13, 21-14 victory and secure their place in the next round.
However, their Indonesian opponents will be fresher as they received a bye into the second round without having to step on court.
Febriana-Meliysa were originally scheduled to face a pair from the qualifying rounds, but a reshuffle had to be made following a withdrawal.
That could give Febriana-Meliysa a slight edge when they meet the Malaysian pair in their bid to reach the quarter-finals.
The Indonesians will also be fired up as they look to avenge their previous defeats to Pearly-Thinaah.
The Malaysians defeated them twice recently — 21-18, 21-17 in the second round of the Hong Kong Open last month and again in the first round of the China Masters, where they were stretched to three games before prevailing 20-22, 21-16, 22-20.
“We want to perform better and continue to improve. We’ll try to maintain the positive trend we’ve shown so far and fix what still needs work,” said Febriana.
