ODENSE: National women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah are ready to take their game one notch higher under a new coach.
They will likely get a replacement for their former coach Hoon Thien How in November before they head for the last two Masters tournaments in Japan and China.
The world No. 7 are looking good to qualify for the season-ending World Tour Finals in Hangzhou, China from Dec 10-15 as one of the top eight pairs. They are lying in the fifth position.
Pearly said they were open to working under a new coach.
“For sure, every new coach is different and will come with different approach but we are open,” said the 24-year-old Pearly.
“We are really excited and looking forward.
“One of the areas that we are constantly working on is our mental and physical preparations, we hope to be better.
Thinaah hoped they could work together as a team.
‘At this level, we are open to train under a new coach,” she said.
“We hope to work things together as one, not separate, we need to work as a team.”
The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) have yet to make an announcement but it’s learnt that it could be their former coach Rosman Razak.
Pearly-Thinaah will now focus on ending the year on a high after their challenge in the Denmark Open ended with a 22-21, 19-21 defeat in 57 minutes to Japan’s Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi in the quarter-finals at the Jyske Bank Arena on Friday.
Just a week ago, they had beaten the Japanese pair in the semi-finals of the Arctic Open in Finland en route to finishing as the runners-up.
“We left a huge gap in the first game and could not push towards the end. We were tired. We’ve been here in Europe for two weeks. Overall, it’s good,” said Thinaah.
“We will rest, and return to end the year strongly. We have never cleared the group stage in the Finals, and that will be the goal.”
This year, the duo were in smashing form to lift the Hong Kong Open title and finished fourth after losing in the bronze-medal playoff in the Olympic Games in Paris.
