Women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan and M. Thinaah won against the world No. 9 Indonesian pair Apriyani Rahayu and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti 21-18, 21-9. They secured a spot in the quarter-finals after finishing second in Group A.
They will compete against South Korea’s world No. 10 Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong, who are also bronze medalists from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The quarter-finals of the Paris Olympics will take place on Thursday (Aug 1). This will be their second encounter, with So-yeong and Hee-yong having won their previous match 21-14 21-14 at the 2021 World Tour Finals.
If world No. 12 Pearly and Thinaah pull off a win this time, they will face either China’s world No. 1 Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan or the Bulgarian sisters, world No. 21 Gabriela and Stefani Stoeva, in the semi-finals. The Malaysian pair previously lost 17-21, 20-22 to the China’s four-time world champions Qingchen and Yifan in their opening group stage match.
Their coach, Hoon Thien How, remarked that they are demonstrating their true potential at the Games.
“Based on the evaluation of these three matches, even though they lost the first match, their performance was actually better compared to before. I can see that in these three matches, they were able to play their true game. In this tournament, we see that their combination is good. They also motivated and encouraged each other throughout the matches,” he told Bernama.
For the record, no Malaysian women’s doubles team has ever advanced to the semi-finals in the Olympics. Will Pearly Tan and M. Thinaah achieve this historic milestone?
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