Women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M Thinaah failed to qualify for the China Open finals after being outplayed by a lower-ranked home pair in the semi-finals today.
The world No 3 pair lost 14-21, 17-21 in 38 minutes to seventh-ranked Jia Yi Fan-Zhang Shu Xian, who were backed by a vociferous home crowd.
Pearly-Thinaah took home US$28,000 (RM118,000) as semi-finalists at the World Tour Super 1000 event.
Yi Fan-Shu Xian have now won four of their five encounters with the Malaysians. The only time when Pearly-Thinaah won was at the Indian Open in January after the Chinese duo were forced to retire due to injury.
Yi Fan-Shu Xian will play either China‘s world No 1 pair Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning or the sixth-ranked Kim Hye Jeong-Kong Hee Yong from South Korea for the title tomorrow.
Pearly-Thinaah’s hope for a second World Tour title this year after winning the Thailand Open in May continues to be elusive despite having reached four finals so far.
Last week, the duo were runners-up at the Japan Open.
The only Malaysians remaining at the China Open are men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, who will take on India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chiraq Shetty in a semi-final match this evening.
