PETALING JAYA: Pearly Tan is nearing her best ahead of the World Championships, with Rexy Mainaky confident she has overcome the back injury that disrupted her season.
The national doubles coaching director has been closely monitoring Pearly in training and is encouraged by her progress.
Although the 26-year-old Pearly is not quite at her best yet, Rexy believes she and partner M. Thinaah still have enough time to sharpen their game before leaving for New Delhi for the tournament from Aug 17-23.
“I watched them in training today (Friday) and their aggressive play is already there. Pearly has also got her feeling back,” said Rexy.
“The tempo of their game is not at 100% yet, but hopefully by the time we leave for New Delhi, they can get it up to around 90% to 95%. That will be enough for them.”
Pearly had been troubled by the back injury earlier this year and was forced to withdraw at the eleventh hour from the Uber Cup Finals in Horsens in April.
Although she returned to competition at the Singapore Open and Indonesia Open in June, Pearly was still not fully fit and continued to be troubled by the injury at the Japan Open and China Open last month.
Pearly-Thinaah made history at last year’s World Championships in Paris when they became Malaysia’s first women’s doubles pair to win a silver medal.
They went down fighting 14-21, 22-20, 17-21 to China’s Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning in the final.
This time, Pearly-Thinaah will head to New Delhi as the fifth seeds and have received a first-round bye.
Malaysia will also be represented by World Championships debutants Carmen Ting-Ong Xin Yee, who will face Ukraine’s Polina Buhrova-Yevheniia Kantemyr in the opening round.
