PETALING JAYA: Women's doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah went down fighting to China's world No. 1 Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning in their last Group A match in the World Tour Finals.
Pearly-Thinah, who were already out of contention for the last four after losing their earlier two matches in the group, gave a good account of themselves before going down 9-21, 21-18, 18-21 to Shengshu-Tan Ning in an exhausting 75-minute match in Hangzhou on Friday (Dec 13).
The world No. 6 pair had also narrowly lost to Japan's world No. 4 Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida and India's world No. 13 Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand in the group.
Despite missing out on the semi-finals, Pearly-Thinaah can take heart from their battling performances in the tournament.
The pair will next have a break from tournaments before they compete in the Malaysian Open from Jan 7-12 at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil.