Malaysian doubles pair Pearly-Thinaah aim to replicate past glory at Olympics

KUALA LUMPUR - Pearly Tan-M.Thinaah breathed new hope for Malaysian badminton at the international level when the doubles pair teamed up in 2019 in the Badminton Association of Malaysia’s (BAM) women’s category.

After just two years together, they pulled off a surprise upset, claiming their first title by winning the 2021 Swiss Open against the tournament's third seeds Gabriela Stoeva-Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria.

The duo went on to win a gold medal for Malaysia at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, taming England's Chloe Birch-Lauren Smith 21-5, 21-8.

Ranked world No. 13, Pearly-Thinaah then went on to make history as the first Malaysian women’s doubles pair to win the French Open in Paris in 2022, which was the country’s best achievement after Wong Pei Tty-Chin Eei Hui emerged as runners-up in 2008.

Pearly-Thinaah also had a long rally of 211 strokes in the quarter-finals of the 2023 Malaysian Masters, but had to settle for a silver at the same tournament and the 2023 Hong Kong Open.

Pearly admitted at that time that several obstacles affected her on-court performances and these included injuries such as a back injury and falling ill, thus forcing them to withdraw from three tournaments in Europe, namely the 2023 Arctic Open in Finland, 2023 Danish Open and 2023 French Open.

Following that, BAM was seen to have its open plans for the doubles pair this year, sending them to participate in nine tournaments in the Badminton World Federation’s (BWF) calendar, with the last outing being the 2024 Indonesia Open which saw them being eliminated in the quarter-finals after losing 20-22, 18-21 to China's Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan.

Pearly-Thinaah have also been given special attention from February with the four former Indonesian doubles players being their sparring partners, in addition to not being fielded in the 2024 Uber Cup in order to focus on preparations for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

They have also been listed in the Road to Gold programme, introduced by the Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS), which started in April last year, in the quest for the first gold in the Olympics.

It may be seen that they have received help from various parties, but will they be able to 'translate' all of this at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena, from July 27?

Meanwhile, two local sports analysts Datuk Dr Pekan Ramli and Mohd Sadek Mustafa think it will be difficult task for Pearly-Thinaah to bring back the 'sweetness' to Malaysia in their debut appearance (at the Olympics) due to several factors seen to be 'hindering' with the progress of the two women.

Pekan said the duo’s current performance seems to be experiencing a decline with opponents being able to ‘read’ their game unless the pair can make a significant change to their playing style.

"Personally, I feel Pearly-Thinaah's chances in Paris are very difficult. At the current ranking position, the pair will definitely face a difficult path in the early rounds (and) frankly speaking we should not place high hopes on them,” he told Bernama recently.

"A defensive playing style is good, but it takes a long time to score points. It's like doing martial arts but not being able to stab the enemy.”

In the meantime, Mohd Sadek said Pearly-Thinaah still need to find the excellent pace they displayed last year, apart from the fact that they are being praised and celebrated every time they achieve success which is 'poison' for them in finding their own identity.

For the Paris Olympic Games, Pearly-Thinaah, who are drawn in Group A, will face stiff competition from defending champions Apriyni Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti from Indonesia, the top seeded doubles and silver winners in Tokyo 2020 Cheng Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan and Japan’s world No 6 Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara. - BERNAMA