PARIS, Aug 1 — Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah have created history by being the first Malaysian women’s doubles pair to advance to the semi-finals in the Olympics, after eliminating the previous edition bronze medalists Kim So Yeong-Kong Hee Yong of South Korea.
In the quarter-finals at Porte de La Chapelle Arena this morning (evening in Malaysia), they put up a brilliant performance to upset 10th-ranked South Koreans, 21-12, 21-13 in 42 minutes.
The Malaysians ranked 12th showed their mettle by leading 11-5 before a 21-12 victory in the first set.
After starting the second set 2-4 down, the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games champions rallied to confirm their semi-final slot with their first win over the Koreans in two meetings.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Kim-Kong won bronze after seeing off compatriots Lee So Hee-Shing Seung Chan in the medal decider.
The national doubles team has only qualified for the quarter-finals of the Olympic Games once in Rio 2016 when Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei lost to the event's champions Misaki Matsutomo-Ayaka Takahashi.
Next, Tan-Thinaah will again face four-time world champions Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan in the semi-finals tomorrow, after losing 17-21, 20-22 to them in the first Group A match on Saturday (August 27).
Chen-Jia, the silver medalists of the Tokyo 2020 edition, eliminated Bulgaria's Gabriela Stoeva-Stefani Stoeva 21-15, 21-8 in another quarter-final action.
Speaking to Bernama after the historic moment, Tan-Thinaah who were happy with their success, and wanted to remain focused for the next two matches.
"Once again, the main challenge was ourselves...We were quite nervous, and the whole night (we) could not sleep well, as we knew today's match was very important to us and we really wanted to win.
"We entered the court calmly, focused on every point and enjoyed the rallies, so this has worked today.
"In the next match, we have nothing to lose, from the round robin until now, we have given our best in every match and I think we have no regrets. For the next match, as usual, we do not want to leave with any regrets and just enjoy every point," said Tan.
Meanwhile, Thinaah said that although they are happy with the history, they do not want to be swayed by it because they have a more important mission.
"Very unbelievable and very happy for today's win. We are proud of each other, we really want to focus, and we do not want to think about the outcome....We thought about the process, so we enjoyed every single rally we were playing.
"That is what helped us today and definitely the support from her and the coaches, that really motivated us. Still few more matches to go, we just need to prepare for the next one" she said.
If Tan-Thinaah can overcome Chen-Jia in action tomorrow, they will challenge for the first gold for the country this Saturday, and if not they will have to play in the bronze medal shootout.
The pair, who started the group stage campaign with a loss to Chen-Jia, managed to turn their fortunes around by creating an extraordinary victory over Japanese pair Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara and Indonesia's Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti to clear the 'group of death'.
— Bernama
