World No 2 women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M Thinaah opened their World Championships campaign with a nervy start before eventually defeating Hong Kong’s Lui Lok Lok-Tsang Hiu Yan at the Adidas Arena in Paris today.
The No 2 seeds defeated their world No 22 opponents 21-17, 21-14 in a match that lasted 37 minutes.
Pearly-Thinaah will play the winners of the match between French pair Tea Margueritte-Flavie Vallet and Indonesia’s Lanny Tria Mayasari-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti in the last 16.
They are hoping to create history by being the first Malaysian women’s doubles pair to win a medal at the World Championships.
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 to amass in their bid to qualify for the prestigious World Tour finals in December
The winners get 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.
