Women's doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah in action during training session at Badminton Association of Malaysia, Bukit Kiara. — FAIHAN GHANI/The Star
ODENSE: Playing with a blister is hard but doubles shuttler Pearly Tan somehow makes it look easy.
Yesterday, top pair Pearly and M. Thinaah had to go the distance to beat Tresa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand of India 19-21, 21-17, 21-15 to reach the second round of the women’s doubles in the Denmark Open at Jyske Bank Arena.
They will play Lee Yu-lim-Shin Seung-chan of South Korea next.
There were some anxious moments when Pearly-Thinaah lost the opening game and the Malaysian camp panicked when Pearly called for medical attention in a tense second game.
It was for a blister that she had picked up en route to finishing as the runners-up at the Arctic Open but when she returned, she played as though the pain was no more.
The duo forced a rubber game and stood solid to win their opening game in only their second Denmark Open outing.
They had to withdraw from last year’s edition due to Pearly’s back injury.
“It’s not an injury this time. I carried a blister from the Arctic Open. It’s not big but it wasn’t easy to play with. I felt better after treatment,” said Pearly.
“We did get off to a slow start. The shuttle was slow too, and our attacking wasn’t working well.
“We communicated well and were able to solve our issues on court and won our match.
“We hope to get better in the next round.
“It takes a lot of energy playing in back-to-back tournaments but it’s the same for everyone, so we just have to keep going.”
Thinaah was glad that they kept to their game plan.
“After Pearly got treatment for her blister, we stayed focused in our game and refused to follow our opponents’ pace and kept reminding each other to move forward.
In their first Denmark Open in 2022, they lost in the second round.
Meanwhile, it was also a pleasant start for mixed doubles pair Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing when they cleared the opening round with a 21-7, 21-14 win against Ethan Van Leeuwen-Chloe Birch of England.
They will face the winners of the match between third seeds Kim Wan-ho-Jeong Na-eun of South Korea and Thailand’s Ruttanapak Oupthong-Jhenicha Sudjaipraparat.
