PETALING JAYA: Women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah (pic) were not able to end their year on a high after crashing out in the first round of the China Masters.
World No. 12 Pearly-Thinaah went down fighting 11-21, 21-15, 20-22 to South Korea’s world No. 11 Jeong Na-eun-Kim Hye-jeong in a pulsating match at the Shenzhen Bay Gymnasium yesterday.
The former were outplayed in the first game but did well to come back to win the second game.
In the third game, Na-eun-Hye-jeong were leading 13-8 before Pearly-Thinaah closed the gap to within one point.
It was then neck and neck and Pearly-Thinaah saved a match point at 19-20 down but the Koreans stayed cool to take the two points needed to win the match.
“It was a really tough and tense match where both pairs were fighting point for point.
“In the end the Koreans were braver and more consistent in their shots than us,” said Pearly.
The matches between the two pairs have always been close with Pearly-Thinaah edging Na-eun-Hye-jeong 21-19, 23-21 in the semi-finals of the Malaysian Masters in May.
Before that, the Koreans had beaten Pearly-Thinaah 15-21, 21-17, 21-9 in their first meeting in the last eight of the All-England last year.
The defeat in Shenzhen ended Pearly-Thinaah’s hopes of winning a title this year.
The pair’s best achievements were finishing runners-up in the Malaysian Masters and Hong Kong Open in September.
“We had more downs than ups this year and we need to see how we can do better next year,” said Thinaah.
“We need to put this behind us and get our mindset right as it will be a very important year for us.”
Pearly-Thinaah’s next assignment will be the Malaysian Open from Jan 9-14 in Bukit Jalil.
