KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — National women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M Thinaah fought back from a game down to oust Japan’s Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi and check into their second straight All England Badminton Championships quarter-finals yesterday.
The world number 15 Malaysians went down 18-21 in an intense first game of their second-round clash against the Japanese pair at the Arena Birmingham.
However, Pearly-Thinaah showed great composure to win the next two games 21-19, 21-16 and send the world number 25 Japanese pair packing after a thrilling 75-minute battle.
On paper, it looks like Pearly-Thinaah should be able to reach the semi-finals as they will be facing world number 64 Jeong Na Eun- Kim Hye Jeong in the last eight after the South Koreans eliminated Thailand’s Supissara Paewsampran-Puttita Supajirakul 19-21, 21-13, 21-13 earlier.
The Malaysian pair did well when they made their debut at the prestigious All England last year, reaching the quarter-finals where they lost to Japan’s Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida.
Meanwhile, it was the end of the road for Malaysian independent men’s doubles shuttlers Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi.
The eighth-seeded Malaysians, who are ranked 11th in the world, crashed out after losing 22-24, 21-13, 17-21 to world number 28 Muhammad Shohibul Fikri-Bagas Maulana of Indonesia.
— Bernama
