Mix and match: Teoh Mei Xing (left) and Pearly Tan going through their drills at the Axiata Arena. — MUHAMAD SHAHRIL ROSLI/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: Women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah have never won a Super 1000 title but that wait could come to an end at the Malaysian Open.
But in order to achieve that, the world No. 2 pair know that they have to beat world No. 1 Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning of China in front of their adoring home fans.
If both pairs, seeded first and second, live up to their billing, they are expected to meet in the final on Sunday at Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil.
Pearly-Thinaah will take world No. 53 Rutaparna Panda-Swetaparna Panda of India tomorrow while Shengshu-Tan Ning will meet Francesca Corbett-Jennie Cai of the United States today.
“We have never won a Super 1000 title and we still find it tough to beat the Chinese pair, so we will work hard on these,” said Pearly.
“Being consistent is harder than reaching the top in the first place, so we need to maintain our form.”
Pearly-Thinaah are also hoping to overtake the Chinese pair in the world rankings. They currently have 95,016 ranking points while Shengshu-Tan Ning are still comfortably ahead with 110,084 points.
A good performance in the Malaysian Open though will help the former narrow the gap and that’s exactly what the pair are aiming for.
“We are still far behind in terms of ranking points but we will try to reach world No. 1,” said Pearly after a training session at Axiata Arena.
Chin Eei Hui-Wong Pei Tty have been the only Malaysian women’s doubles pair to ever reach world No. 1 in 2009.
If Pearly-Thinaah clear the early rounds, it will be a breakthrough after suffering first round exits in their last three outings in 2023, 2024 and 2025 and second round in 2022.
“We have never performed well in this competition. We want the fans to watch us longer this time,” said Pearly.
“There are high expectations on us as we are the second seeds but we will turn this into motivation.”
Pearly-Thinaah have enjoyed a fine 2025, which included emerging as the runners-up at the World Championships in Paris. Yesterday, they were rewarded with RM50,000 cash incentive from 100Plus after capturing gold in the Thailand SEA Games last month.
