Pearly-Thinaah storms into the semi-finals of the German Open

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian doubles badminton champion Pearly Tan-M.Thinaah was clearly in a class of her own as the country’s only representative to secure a place in the semi-finals of the 2023 German Open in Mülheim.

The world No. 6 pair defeated Japanese pairing Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara in the Super 300 Quarterfinals earlier today (Friday night in Germany) 21:17, 18:21, 21:11.

The winners of the 2022 Commonwealth Games will take on top Japanese duo Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida around midnight Malaysian time to book a ticket to the finals of this edition.

In the past clashes between them, Pearly-Thinaah, who is third in the tournament, has only beaten Nami-Chiharu once at the 2022 French Open while losing seven times to the world’s second-ranked women’s doubles pair.

Meanwhile, national mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei lost to world No. 14 Kim Won Ho-Jeong Na Eun of South Korea 20-22, 14-21 in their quarterfinal match that lasted 41 minutes. –Bernama