PETALING JAYA: Women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah have a great chance to clear the early rounds of the Malaysian Open from Jan 7-12 at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil for the first time after receiving a favourable draw.
Pearly-Thinaah have never progressed past the early rounds in the competition since making their debut in 2022.
The pair lost in the second round in 2022 and then suffered first-round exits in 2023 and 2024.
This time, world No. 6 and third seeds Pearly-Thinaah have a good chance to at least reach the last eight.
The duo have been placed in the top half of the draw and will open their campaign against Indonesia’s new pairing Siti Fadia Ramadhanti-Lanny Tria.
Fadia won the title in 2022 with Apriyani Rahayu but split from the latter after the Paris Olympics last August and combined with Lanny.
A win over the Indonesians will see Pearly-Thinaah face the winners of the all-Taiwanese clash between Teng Chun-hsun-Yang Chu-yun and Hsu Yin-hui-Lin Jhih-yun in the second round.
If Pearly-Thinaah manage to make it into the quarter-finals, they could take on India’s world No. 11 and sixth seeds Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand.
The other seeded pairs in the top half are China’s top seeds and defending champions Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning and another Indonesian pair, fifth seeds Febriani Kusuma-Amalia Cahaya.
If both Pearly-Thinaah and Shengshu-Tan Ning live up to their respective seedings, they could face each other in the last four.
Meanwhile, Malaysia will also be represented in the women’s doubles by Vivian Hoo-Lim Chiew Sien, Go Pei Kee-Teoh Mei Xing and Asian Junior Championships bronze medallists Ong Xin Yee-Carmen Ting.
Vivian, who will be retiring from the sport after the tournament, will play Taiwan’s Cheng Yu-pei-Sun Yu-hsing in the first round with Chiew Sien.
Japan’s Kokona Ishikawa-Mio Konegawa stand in the way of Pei Kee-Mei Xing while Xin Yee-Carmen, who were promoted from the reserves list and will be making their debut in a Super 1000 event, will meet Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun-Yu Chien-hui in their opening match.
