PETALING JAYA: It was not the result Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah wanted as their World Championships campaign came to an end in the third round.
Pearly-Thinaah, who were among Malaysia’s medal hopes after finishing runners-up at the previous edition, were unable to produce their best against Indonesia’s Febriana Dwipuji-Meilysa Trias and went down 22-20, 18-21, 12-21 at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.
The defeat was unexpected as Pearly-Thinaah had won five of their previous six meetings against the Indonesians, including their All-England quarter-final clash in March.
Thinaah felt they paid the price for allowing themselves to be drawn into their opponents’ game instead of sticking to their own plan.
“I think towards the end we started to follow the opponents’ game. We weren’t sticking to our original plan and the opponents did well to break our strategy.
“So I think that was something we could have taken note of and changed earlier,” said Thinaah in a post-match interview with the BWF.
Pearly, meanwhile, did not believe her recent injury problems played a part in the defeat. The pair had only about two weeks to prepare for the world meet after Pearly had been troubled by a series of injuries in recent months, including a back injury in April.
Despite the disappointing exit, Pearly said there were still positives to take from their progress and stressed that they would continue working to get back to their best.
“I think so far the progress is better, but in terms of our own ability, especially from my side, there is still a lot that needs to be worked on. So we won’t give up. We will train hard and work even harder,” said Pearly.
Pearly-Thinaah’s exit also ended Malaysia’s campaign in the women’s doubles, with Carmen Ting-Ong Xin Yee having lost earlier in the second round to Japan’s Yuki Fukushima-Mayu Matsumoto.
