KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 13 — National women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan’s hopes of defending their title went up in smoke after they were bundled out in the semi-finals of the Hong Kong Open today.
The World Championships runners-up found China’s Jia Yi Fan-Zhang Shu Xian too hot to handle and went down 14-21, 11-21 in just 35 minutes.
Pearly-Thinaah’s defeat marked the end of Malaysia’s campaign in this year’s championships, as they were the only national shuttlers to have advanced to the last four.
The duo had clinched the women’s doubles title at the Hong Kong Open last year when they subdued Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning of China 21-14, 21-14 in the title showdown.
Meanwhile, Thinaah said the Chinese pair’s shot placements made life difficult for them, as they were put under pressure.
“I think that’s something we need to work on… and also to be more alert,” she said in an audio clip shared with the media.
Pearly attributed their downfall to rushing their shots as they tried to push for more points when leading, thus resulting in them losing focus and forgetting their own gameplay.
“At times, our focus, I think, started to wane, forcing us into making a lot of simple mistakes. We also followed their pace, which I think cost us the match,” said Pearly, who admitted that she and her partner need a good few days’ rest before resuming training for their next tournament.
