Good times: Pearly Tan and M. Thinaah embrace their coaches Hoon Thien How and Rexy Mainaky after beating South Korea’s Kim So-yeong-Kong Hee-yong in the quarter-finals at the Olympic Games in Paris in August. — AFP
PETALING JAYA: Shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah have scored few milestones under coach Hoon Thien How but they know it is time to move on.
The world No. 5 Pearly-Thinaah will be competing in the back-to-back Europe tournaments – the Arctic Open in Vantaa, Finland starting tomorrow and the Denmark Open in Odense from Oct 15-20 without Thien How.
Thinaah thanked Thien How for managing them for slightly more than two years.
Thien How has been moved to coach the juniors under the BA of Malaysia’s latest change in the coaching and training structure made by national coaching director Rexy Mainaky.
“We just want to thank our coach for his guidance on the court,” said Thinaah.
Under Thien How, they grew as a pair and did well to beat all top ranked pairs en route to finishing fourth in the recent Paris Olympic Games.
It’s unsure who will take over Thien How’s place but it is learnt that one of the frontrunners is the duo’s former coach Rosman Razak
Thinaah however, has set her mind on the task ahead of her.
“We just want to focus step by step in the Arctic Open and enjoy every moment on court,” said Thinaah.
They are seeded third in the absence of top two regular pairs and relatively, have an easier path to the quarter-finals.
They face qualifiers in the opening game and will face the winners of the match between Kirsten de Wit (Holland)-Mariia Stoliarenko (Ukraine) and homesters Ria Tuominen-Ellen Virta.
Their possible opponents in the last eight are set to be sixth seeds and world No. 27 Chang Ching-hui-Yang Ching-tun of Taiwan.
If they win, they are likely to face one of these pairs – Japan’s seeded pairs Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi of Japan (second), Kokona Ishikawa-Mio Konegawa (eighth) and China’s unseeded but dangerous pair of Jia Yifan-Li Wenmei.
Yifan, who forms the No. 1 partnership with Chen Qingchen, has reached the semi-finals with Wenmei in their first international stint at the Japan Open in August.
Thinaah however, prefers to focus on her partnership with Pearly.
“One of the aspects that I have improved is the trust and communication with,” she said.
“We are however, still working on our rotation during game play and also our focus during crucial points,” added Thinaah.
Meanwhile, Thien How, who has been moved to coach the juniors , is grateful for the opportunity to coach Pearly-Thinaah.
“There were ups and downs but we were able to achieve some results at the end. I thank them for their hard work, and I’ve learnt a lot too as a coach,” added Thien How.
