Pearly keeping her cool, Aaron aims to end 15-month wait for title in Taiwan
PETALING JAYA: Pearly Tan is not getting carried away despite reaching her first final in seven months with M. Thinaah at the Taiwan Open.
Pearly-Thinaah will have the chance to end their title drought when they take on Japan’s Sumire Nakade-Miyu Takahashi in the final today, but Pearly is keeping her feet firmly on the ground.
It will be Pearly-Thinaah’s first appearance in a final since they lifted the Indonesia Masters title in January.
The Malaysian top seeds secured their place in the final after brushing aside the United States’ Francesca Corbett-Jennie Gai 21-15, 21-17 in the semi-finals yesterday.
“I’m not saying that I’ve completely recovered, but it’s getting better,” said Pearly in a post-match interview with the BWF.
“Everything is getting better – our movement on court, rotation on court, communication on court. I think it’s getting better. But like I said, we still need to improve day by day and there’s a lot of work we need to do together.”
It has been a longer wait than expected for the world No. 5 pair to make their presence felt on the international stage after Pearly spent the past few months battling a series of injuries that disrupted their momentum.
Thinaah, meanwhile, credited the trust they have built over the years as one of the key reasons behind their run to the final, although she acknowledged there is still room for improvement.
“I think there’s still things that we need to work on, but this is a positive thing that we can take away,” said Thinaah.
World No. 71 Nakade-Takahashi have punched above their weight and should not be under-estimated.
The Japanese pair began their campaign by beating Hong Kong’s world No. 33 duo Lui Lok Lok-Tsang Hiu Yan in the opening round before knocking out second seeds and world No. 10 pair Hsieh Pei-shan-Hung En-tzu of Taiwan.
They then knocked out another Taiwanese pair, world No. 18 duo Hsu Ya-ching-Sung Yu-hsuan, in the quarter-finals before coming from a game down to beat Thailand’s Hathaithip Mijad-Napapakorn Tungkasatan in the semis.
Aaron Chia will also have the chance to end a 15-month title drought when he and new partner Aaron Tai take on Indonesia’s Leo Carnando-Daniel Marthin in the Taiwan Open final today.
Aaron has not lifted a title since winning the Singapore Open with former partner Soh Wooi Yik in May last year.
Chia-Tai, competing in only their second tournament together after last week’s China Open, booked their place in the final by coming from behind to beat home pair Chen Cheng-kuan-Liu Kuang-heng 24-26, 21-19, 21-16 yesterday.
“I think they were our toughest opponents this week.
“It’s never easy playing against the home pair because they put us under a lot of pressure, but we’re happy we managed to come through.
“There’s still one more match to go, so we’ll try our best tomorrow,” said Chia.
SEMI-FINAL RESULTS
Men’s singles: Yoo Tae-bin (Kor) bt Lin Chun-yi (Tpe) 21-19, 21-19; Chou Tien-chen-Yudai Okimoto (Jpn)...
Men’s doubles: Hiroki Okamura-Kyohei Yamashita (Jpn) bt Leo Rolly Carnando-Daniel Marthin; Aaron Chia-Aaron Tai (Mas) bt Chen Cheng-kuan-Liu Kuang-heng (Tpe) 24-26, 21-19, 21-16; Aaron Chia-Aaron Tai bt Chen Cheng-kuan-Liu Kuang-heng (Tpe) 24-26, 21-19, 21-16
Women’s singles: Tanvi Sharma (Ind) bt Huang Yu-shun (Tpe) 21-17, 21-11; Nguyen Thuy Linh (Vie) bt Unnati Hooda (Ind) 21-15, 21-18.
Women’s doubles: Sumire Nakade-Miyu Takahashi (Jpn) bt Hathaithip Mijad-Napapakorn Tungkasatan (Tha) 18-21, 21-11, 21-16; Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah (Mas) bt Francesca Corbett-Jennie Gai 21-15, 21-17.
Mixed doubles: Yuta Watanabe-Maya Taguchi (Jpn) bt Rehan Naufal-Gloria Emanuelle (Ina) 21-17, 22-20; Yang Po-hsuan-Hu Ling-fang (Tpe) bt Wu Guan-xun-Lee Chia-hsin 26-24, 21-17.
