PARIS, July 28 — Top national women’s pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah keep their quarter-final hopes alive by scoring an upset win over world number six Mayu Matsumoto Wakana Nagahara of Japan in the 2024 Olympic Games badminton competition this morning.

The world number 13 ranked Malaysians gave a spirited display to beat the 2018 and 2019 world champions 18-21, 21-15, 21-16 in the Group A match at Porte De La Chapelle Arena.

Pearly-Thinaah led 11-7 in the opening game but faltered to let the Japanese win 21-18.

Spurred by the support of the 8,000-strong crowd, Pearly-Thinaah played more aggressively to lead early in the second game before romping to a 21-15 win to force a rubber game.

In the decider, Pearly-Thinaah continued to rattle the Japanese with powerful attacks and clinch victory, stretching the head-to-head record to 4-2 in favour of the Malaysians.

In their Paris 2024 opening match yesterday, the Malaysians went down fighting 17-21, 20-22 in 55 minutes to world number one Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan of China.Pearly-Thinaah need to beat Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti of Indonesia in their final group match on Tuesday to qualify for the quarter-finals. — Bernama