KUALA LUMPUR, May 24 — The country’s top women’s doubles pair, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah hope to continue their positive streak when they face South Korea’s Lee Yu Lim-Shin Seung Chan in the semi-finals of the Malaysia Masters 2024 at Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil here, tomorrow.
Featured as the tournament’s second seeds, last year’s finalists needed just 31 minutes to defeat Australia’s Setyana Mapasa-Angela Yu 21-16, 21-8 in today’s quarter-final round.
Thinaah, 26, said booking the first semi-final slot of the season was an achievement worth being proud of, but refused to be swayed by the success.
“We still want to improve ourselves. I think the South Koreans (pair) are not an easy opponents so we just focus on each other and get a good rest before tomorrow’s game,” she told reporters here today.
Pearly, on the other hand, feels that the strategy and better preparation are the factors for today’s victory and she hopes that it will be practised throughout the tournament.
Pearly-Thinaah’s performance this season was seen as uninspiring when they were shown the way out as early as the first round three times, namely at the Malaysian Open 2024, the French Open 2024 and the Asian Badminton Championship 2024 in Ningbo, China.
They were then eliminated in the second round of the 2024 India Open, besides being eliminated in the quarter-finals of the All England 2024 and the Indonesia Masters 2024.
At the Malaysian Masters last year, Pearly-Thinaah emerged as runners-up after being defeated by the South Korean pair, Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee, 20-22, 21-8 and 17-21.
Meanwhile, another top-four clash will pit tournament first seeds Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi of Japan against Bulgarian pair Gabriela Stoeva-Stefani Stoeva for the final slot on Sunday. — Bernama
