PETALING JAYA: World No. 2 women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah will need to raise their game in Jakarta this week if they hope to repeat their run to the Indonesian Open final.
Pearly-Thinaah suffered an early exit at the Singapore Open last week after going down 16-21, 19-21 to Thailand’s Benyapa Aimsaard-Nuntakarn Aimsaard in the second round despite being seeded second.
However, it was also Pearly’s first tournament since recovering from a back injury that forced her to miss the Uber Cup Finals in Horsens last month.
National doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky hopes Pearly-Thinaah can put the disappointment in Singapore behind them and produce a stronger showing in Jakarta this week.
“Based on Rosman Razak (women’s doubles head coach) told me, Pearly-Thinaah played below their usual standards and made too many unforced errors.
“We hope they can bounce back and do much better at the Indonesian Open,” said Rexy.
Pearly-Thinaah will open their campaign against Canada’s Jackie Dent-Crystal Lai.
A win would set up a second-round meeting against either Hong Kong’s Lui Lok Lok-Tsang Hiu Yan or Taiwan’s Hsu Ya-ching-Sung Yu-hsuan.
Also in action are Carmen Ting-Ong Xin Yee, who will take on Japan’s Kaho Osawa-Mai Tanabe in the first round.
Should they advance, Carmen-Xin Yee are likely to face a tougher test in the second round against either Japan’s Rui Hirokami-Sayaka Hobara or eighth seeds Gabriela Stoeva-Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria.
Pearly-Thinaah came close to ending Malaysia’s 16-year wait for a women’s doubles title at the Indonesian Open last year before falling to China’s Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning in the final.
The last Malaysian women’s doubles pair to lift the Indonesian Open title were Chin Ee Hui-Wong Pei Tty in 2009.
