Paris 2024: Pearly-Thinaah create history, cruise into Olympics semi-finals

PARIS: 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), Pearly-Thinaah 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, So Yeong-Hee Yong 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, Pearly-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, last Saturday.

Qing Chen-Yi Fan, who are the silver medalists of 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, Pearly-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 whole night couldn't sleep well, as we know today's match is very important to us and we really want to win. We entered the court calm, focus every point and enjoy the rallies, so this has worked today.

"In the next match, we have nothing to lose, from the round robin until now, we are giving our best in every match and I think we have no regrets. For the next match, as usual we don't want to leave with any regrets and just enjoy every point," said Pearly.

Meanwhile, Thinaah said that although they are happy with the history, they don't 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 wanted to focus, we don't want to think about the outcome....We thought about the process, so we enjoyed every single rally we were playing.

"That's 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" said Thinaah.

If Pearly-Thinaah can overcome Qing Chen-Yi Fan 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.

Pearly-Thinaah who started the group stage campaign with a loss to Qing Chen-Yi Fan, managed to turn their fortunes around by creating an extraordinary victory over the Japanese pair, Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara and Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti to clear the 'group of death'.

-- BERNAMA