PETALING JAYA: It will only get harder but Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah believe they will only get better in the World Championships.
The world No. 5 made a winning start after easeing past Turkiye’s Bengisu Ercetin-Nazlican Inci 21-16, 21-13 in the second round at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium yesterday, but know they still have plenty to improve on in New Delhi.
The victory was especially satisfying for Thinaah after she had lost to the same pair at the Uber Cup Finals in Horsens in April.
Pearly had been forced to pull out at the last minute with a back injury then, leaving Thinaah to partner Ong Xin Yee.
This time, with Pearly back alongside her, Thinaah was pleased to turn the tables on the Turkish pair but admitted their game was still not where they wanted it to be.
"I definitely feel happy that we won our first match, but there are things that we still need to work on and improve.
"But with the communication and the strategy we've been talking about with each other and the coaches, I believe we can do even better in the next match," said Thinaah in a post-match interview with the BWF.
Expectations are naturally high on Pearly-Thinaah after they finished runners-up at the last edition, but Pearly is not putting too much pressure on their campaign.
After a difficult few months with injury, her first priority is simply to stay healthy throughout the tournament.
"My goal is, of course, to stay injury-free first because these few months, there have been more downs than ups. That's why we don't put so much pressure on ourselves," said Pearly.
"Like what Thinaah said, we only had two weeks to train more together. Before that, we were training more individually, so our aggressiveness and rotation did not really click.
"We only had two weeks to work on everything, so I don't put too much pressure or high hopes. First, stay injury-free, do what we can and hope for the best."
There was no such joy for compatriots Carmen Ting-Ong Xin Yee, who went down 15-21, 15-21 to world No. 2 Yuki Fukushima-Mayu Matsumoto in the second round.
Despite the defeat, Carmen-Xin Yee felt there were positives to take from facing one of the most experienced pairs in the tournament.
Matsumoto is a two-time former world champion with Wakana Nagahara, while Fukushima was a three-time world silver medallist with Sayaka Hirota.
"Even though we lost, I think it gave us more confidence because there were things we could learn from the match," said Xin Yee.
