THE national women’s double combo of Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan served an ideal distraction for Malaysians away from the run-up to the 15th General Election (GE15) last night (Oct 30) as they delivered history as the first women’s double pair from the country to win the French Open tournament.
The duo stunned their more fancied Japanese opponents who are twice world champions Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara 21-19, 18-21, 21-15 in a pulsating final which every badminton fan would have forgiven them if they had lost.
But having come to this stage, the Klang-hail Thinaah, 24, and her Kedah-born 22-year-old partner thought otherwise; the unseeded Malaysians stood as tall – and as solid – as the Eiffel Tower in the pulsating 72-minute final showdown in Paris against the fourth seeded Matsumoto-Nagahara.
The French Open 2022 will now be Pearly-Thinaah’s biggest title win in their career and second in World Tour competitions after lifting the Swiss Open in March last year.
What makes the victory even sweeter for Pearly-Thinaah is the very fact that they wouldn’t be there in the first place if not for Pearly’s “ridiculous fighting spirit” given just a few weeks ago, their presence at the European tournaments seemed doubtful as the former was recovering from a hamstring pull that short-lived their Japan Open campaign in September.
While they bowed out in style at the second round of the Denmark open a week prior to reigning world champions Chen Qingchen-Jia Yifan of China in Odense (losing in rubber set 18-21, 22-20, 17-21 on Oct 20), Pearly-Thinaah bulldozed past every opponent in the French Open 2022 starting with Indonesia’s up and rising stars Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Ramadhanti in the first round.
In the second round, they sent anther Indonesian pair of Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma-Amalia Cahaya Pratiwi packing but not without Indonesian coach Eng Hian having to issue an apology after being overheard dubbing the duo putih (white) and hitam (black) during game break.
At the quarterfinal stage, Pearly-Thinaah broke down the first of ‘Japanese Great Wall’ – that of world No. 3 Chiharu Shida-Nami Matsuyama – before seeing off South Korean pair of Lee So Hee and Baek Ha Na who were runners-up at the Denmark Open last week in straight sets of 21-13 21-17 in the semis.
Praising his charges’ mental strength after the win, coach Hoon Thien How told StarSports: “It was Pearly-Thinaah’s first World Tour final of the year but mentally they were very strong. This is a really good win for them. Hopefully, they can get even better in tournaments after this.”
Below are five talking points observed by FocusM in Pearly-Thinaah’s match against Matsumoto and Nagahara:
- Never say die attitude especially being 2-6 down in rubber set;
- Ability to just enjoy the game (have fun);
- Formidable understanding with excellent rotational play;
- Unexpectedly hard smashing power despite ‘petite’ physique; and
- Ability to understand Mandarin (Thinaah’s fluency in Mandarin is definitely a big plus point as coach Thien How need not repeat his instructions in Bahasa Malaysia/English). – Oct 31, 2022
Main pic credit: BadmintonPlanet.com
