SHAH ALAM, Feb 15 — “I fought for her (M Thinaah).”

That was the response from national women’s doubles shuttler Pearly Tan after she had teamed up with “temporary partner” Valeree Siow to deliver Malaysia’s second point in their opening Group Y match against Japan in the Badminton Asia Team Championships (BATC) 2022 at the Setia City Convention Centre here today.

The scratch pair notched a hard-fought 24-22, 21-18 victory over Rui Hirokami-Yuna Kato to level the tie at 2-2 before Anna Cheong-Teoh Mei Xing defeated Hina Akechi-Riko Gunji 21-12, 21-5 for a stunning 3-2 win over the reigning champions.

Pearly admitted to being shocked to learn of Thinaah’s absence when the line-up was announced earlier today, on the first day of the tournament.

Thinaah had to withdraw from today’s action at the 11th hour after testing positive for Covid-19 earlier today.

“She texted me before my game… she was sad (that she was unable to play). I was shocked that Thinaah tested positive (for Covid-19), but we have to move on.

“The coach also told me not to think too much about it but to fight for one point for the team,” she told reporters when met after the game against Rui-Yuna.

Valeree, when asked about her partnership with Pearly, said they had teamed up in training before and added that it was normal to have such last-minute pair-ups in team events.

“It was a good experience playing with Pearly. I just need to be more stable and make fewer mistakes next time,” said Valeree.

Malaysia had earlier got off to a poor start when national singles ace S Kisona, ranked 64th in the world, went down 12-21, 16-21 to world number 72 Natsuri Nidaira before Japan raced to a 2-0 lead when world number 181 Riko Gunji crushed 2017 Asian Junior Championship silver medallist Eoon Qi Xuan, 21-17, 21-7.

However, Siti Nurshuhaini Azman, inspired Malaysia’s comeback as she put up a highly-spirited performance to clinch the first point for the country by disposing of Hina Akechi 21-16, 22-20 before Pearly-Valeree and Anna-Mei Xing sealed an amazing turnaround.

Mei Xing attributed Siti Nurshuhaini and Valeree-Pearly’s victories and the presence of Malaysian fans for boosting her morale to clinch the winning point for Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Siti Nurshuhaini said she just needs to improve on the defensive part of her game and vowed to return much stronger tomorrow.

The Malaysian girls can qualify for the semi-finals if they beat India tomorrow while the national men’s team will kick off their campaign against Singapore in Group B. Both matches will be held at 4pm.

The top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-finals and automatically qualify for the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals that will take place in Bangkok in May. — Bernama