Pearly-Thinaah one win away from French Open title

KUCHING: The scoreline may read 21-17, 22-20, but it wasn’t a walk at the park for Pearly Tan and M. Thinaah to reach the French Open final in Paris, France.

Against Japan’s Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi on Saturday (Oct 24) today, every loose return, mistimed lift and moment of hesitation threatened to swing the semi-final the other way.

There was no room for cheap points.

The Malaysians had to keep pushing their game and their wits, knowing the Japanese pair were capable of turning even the smallest lapse into an opening.

Pearly-Thinaah edged the first game 21-17, but the second became the real test.

Iwanaga-Nakanishi refused to let the match slip, matching the Malaysians through long exchanges and forcing them to work for almost every point as the game tightened towards the finish.

At 20-20, it became a winner-takes-all stretch.

One mistake could have dragged the match into a decider. One clean sequence could end it there.

Pearly-Thinaah chose the latter.

They held their nerve through the deadlock and took the next two points to close out the match 22-20, sealing a second consecutive final in the space of a week in 47 minutes.

The result keeps alive their bid for back-to-back World Tour titles following last Sunday’s Denmark Open triumph in Odense.

That victory ended Malaysia’s 18-year wait for a Denmark Open women’s doubles crown and came after a season in which Pearly had been working her way back from a recurring back injury that flared during the Badminton Asia Championships in Ningbo in April.

Thinaah’s support had helped her stay positive through that spell, and their understanding on court has become increasingly visible during this European run.

There was plenty of it needed against Iwanaga-Nakanishi.

The Japanese pair kept asking questions right until the end, but Pearly-Thinaah found enough answers when the match was at its tightest.

One week after lifting a trophy in Denmark, another is now within reach in France.