PETALING JAYA: Can women’s doubles duo Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah end their disappointing record in the Malaysian Open after a year filled with milestones?
The world No. 2 pair memorably became the first Malaysians in the women’s doubles to win a medal in the World Championships when they captured silver in Paris in August last year.
Pearly-Thinaah then ended the country’s decade-long wait for a women’s doubles gold in the SEA Games in Thailand last month.
The pair also captured three titles in the World Tour and finished runners-up thrice.
Pearly-Thinaah will next be looking to put an end to their miserable record in the prestigious home Open from Jan 6-11 at Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil.
The duo have never reached the quarter-finals since making their debuts in the competition in 2022.
Pearly-Thinaah suffered a second round exit in 2022 and could not get past the first round in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Based on the draw this time, the pair should have little trouble clearing their opening hurdle against India’s world No. 53 Rutaparna Panda-Swetaparna Panda.
It gets trickier though in the second round as the winners of the match between India’s world No. 20 Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand and Indonesia’s SEA Games silver medallists Febriana Dwipuji-Meilysa Trias await.
If Pearly-Thinaah can get past the early rounds for the first time, they could face South Korea’s world No. 6 Baek Ha-na-Lee So-hee in the quarter-finals.
The high-flying Malaysians will be keen to bring their fine form into the new year and finally end their torment in the competition.
Meanwhile, Malaysia will also be represented in the women’s doubles by world No. 22 Teoh Mei Xing-Go Pei Kee and world No. 26 Ong Xin Yee-Carmen Ting.
Pei Kee-Mei Xing will take on Hong Kong’s Yeung Nga Ting-Yeung Pui Lam in the first round while Xin Yee-Carmen will play Japan’s Rui Hirokami-Sayaka Hobara.
