PETALING JAYA: The target is lofty but fits their stature.
Women’s doubles head coach Rosman Razak is hoping his charges, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, can emerge champions at the All-England, which begins next Tuesday.
Rosman acknowledged that it is a tall order, but as elite players on the world stage, it is only fitting that they set their sights on lifting the trophy at the world’s oldest badminton tournament.
Although Malaysia have captured several All-England titles, they have yet to savour success in the women’s doubles event.
More painfully, no Malaysian women’s pair have ever advanced to the final of the prestigious tournament.
However, Rosman believes the key to Pearly-Thinaah’s success lies in negoatiating their opening two matches successfully. If they can come through those tests, he is confident things will fall into place.
“As usual, we want to win. I think Pearly-Thinaah cannot shy away from a high target. It will be a demanding stretch and we hope their path in the first and second rounds will be smooth.
“For me, the first two rounds are very important for them to settle in and adapt to everything, and hopefully the draw will favour us. If they can get past the first two matches, I believe they will grow in confidence,” said Rosman.
Seeded second, Pearly-Thinaah open against Arisa Igarashi-Chiharu Shida.
Ironically, Shida dashed their hopes at last year’s All-England at the quarter-final stage when she partnered Nami Matsuyama.
Should Pearly-Thinaah overcome the Japanese pair, they will face either Americans Lauren Lam-Allison Lee or South Koreans Lee Seo-jin-Lee Yeon-woo in the second round.
Rosman hopes their decision to compete in only one tournament in Birmingham in March will pay dividends after opting out of four other European meets, including this week’s German Open, the Swiss Open (March 10-15) and the Orleans Masters (March 17-22).
“Hopefully there will be some benefit because in the past two or three years they went to the German Open first. But after receiving feedback from the players, we found that they were quite tired.
“At the German Open, we usually treat it as a warm-up tournament, but in reality there is no such thing as a warm-up for Pearly-Thinaah because they are expected to win.
“In Germany, many of the same players compete and the standard is always high. This year, not many top players are featuring as they are focusing on the All-England, so perhaps everyone is thinking the same,” he added.
