That’s more like it: Pearly Tan and M. Thinaah have put their Malaysian Open first-round loss behind them.
PETALING JAYA: Women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah proved that their first-round exit at last week’s Malaysian Open was just a minor blip after advancing to the quarter-finals of the India Open in New Delhi yesterday.
World No. 8 Pearly-Thinaah needed a strong result at the India Open and they took advantage of a good draw when they overcame Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hsin-Teng Chun-hsun 21-14, 16-21, 21-6 in a second-round clash yesterday.
Reaching the last eight will relieve the pain of suffering a shock defeat to Bulgarians Gabriela Stoeva-Stefani Stoeva in the first round of the Malaysian Open.
National doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky said the result would help them regain their confidence.
“The result is good for them to regain their self-belief. They dropped a game but came back strongly in the third to qualify for the quarter-finals,” said Rexy.
Pearly-Thinaah started well but lost momentum in the second game to allow the Taiwanese pair to move into the deciding game.
However, they played aggressively and secured 10 points on the trot while leading 11-6 to win 21-6 and secure their place in the last eight comfortably.
“Ups and downs, for me is something normal during a match. The China pair who won the Malaysian Open recently also lost in the first game against aThai pair but the main point is how they can come back and control the game.
“Pearly-Thinaah managed to come back strongly in the third game.”
The China pair Rexy mentioned are world No. 1 Chen Qingchen-Jia Yifan, who played Thailand’s world No. 24 Supissara Paewsampran-Puttita Supajirakul and dropped the first game before winning 16-21, 21-14, 21-16.
Pearly-Thinaah have the chance to extend their run as they will meet Japan’s Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi, who overcame third seeds Kim So-yeong-Kong Hee-yong 21-18, 21-19, in the last eight today.
Meanwhile, in the men’s doubles, world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Woi Yik came from behind to beat Lee Jhe-huey-Yang Po-hsuan of Taiwan 15-21, 21-19, 21-19 to reach the last eight.
In the men’s singles, Malaysian Open champion Viktor Axelsen withstood a spirited challenge from China’s Shi Yuqi to keep his hopes of securing back-to-back titles alive with a 21-16, 16-21, 21-6 win in 63 minutes to reach the last eight.
