Marked improvement: Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah went down fighting to Japan’s world No. 11 Rena Miyaura-Ayako Sakuramoto in the last eight of the All-England last week.
PETALING JAYA: Things are starting to look up for women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah.
A week after a positive performance in the All-England in Birmingham, the pair received confirmation of their qualification to the Paris Olympics in July.
Pearly-Thinaah, who are currently in ninth place in the Race to Paris Rankings, are set to be the sole representatives for Malaysia in the women’s doubles in the showpiece event.
The pair will be making their maiden appearance in the Olympics.
Pearly-Thinaah had wowed the nation with their dynamic attacking play and went on to capture gold in the Commonwealth Games and the French Open title in 2022.
The pair though had struggled to replicate their success since and only showed flashes of their capabilities last year with injuries to Pearly not helping their cause.
A fitter Pearly combined well with Thinaah to reach the quarter-finals of the All-England and coach Hoon Thien How wants his charges to build on their encouraging outing.
The duo stunned China’s world No. 1 Chen Qingchen-Jia Yifan in the second round before going down fighting to Japan’s world No. 11 Rena Miyaura-Ayako Sakuramoto in three games in the last eight.
It was only Pearly-Thinaah’s second quarter-final appearance in individual competitions this year after the Indonesian Masters in January.
“Based on their performance in the All-England, I can see there is hope for them to return to their best form,” said Thien How.
“They showed improvement but there are still things for them to work on.
“Both of them are really working hard to get back to their best.”
No Malaysian women’s doubles pair has gone beyond the quarter-finals in the Olympics.
Pearly-Thinaah have the opportunity to create history and received a timely boost when they moved from No. 15 to No. 13 in latest world rankings after the All-England.
Their next assignment will be the Asian Championships in Ningbo, China from April 9-14.
