Pearly Tan-M Thinaah created badminton history by becoming the nation’s first women’s badminton doubles pair to enter the finals of the World Championships by defeating their Japanese rivals in the semi-final in Paris today.
The world No 2 pair did it in style by a score of 14-21, 21-13, 21-12 in a 66-minute victory over Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida.
They will meet either China‘s world No 1 pair Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning or the 9th ranked Japanese duo Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi in the final tomorrow.
The World Championships final will be Pearly-Thinaah’s fifth appearance in a final this season.
Their entry into the final assures Pearly-Thinaah of either a gold or silver medal; they will be the first Malaysian women’s pair to achieve such a feat, after having created history yesterday as the first Malaysian women’s doubles semi-finalist in the tournament.
Matsuyama-Shida have always been difficult opponents for the Malaysian pair as they have beaten Pearly-Thinaah in 13 of their 16 encounters so far, and had also dashed the Olympics medal hopes of the Malaysian pair last year when they beat them in the semi-finals in the same venue, the Adidas Arena.
The Paris meet was the swansong for the Japanese pairing after a decade as they have announced that they are going separate ways after this meet.
Pearly-Thinaah showed that they were serious contenders for the world title after having won all their matches in Paris in straight games except for today.
This tournament does not offer any prize money, but gold, silver and bronze medals. It is, however, known for its prestige and offers the highest points of any BWF tournament for players seeking to qualify for the World Tour finals in December.
The winners receive 14,500 points and the runners-up 12,500. Semi-finalists are awarded 10,500, quarter-finalists 8,200 and those qualifying for the last 16 get 6,000 points.
