KUALA LUMPUR – National women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan and M. Thinaah are not out of the woods yet despite their achievements in bringing home not one, but two gold medals from the recently concluded 2022 Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
To recap, the pair had made the country proud by nabbing gold in the women’s doubles category and adding another through the mixed team event.
The victories have, without a doubt, given them a boost of confidence to keep winning more tournaments, but they admitted they are still working on improving their game.
“We still have a lot of room for improvement, so we will keep the focus on our training,” said Thinaah.
Pearly and Thinaah had only returned home on Wednesday night, and were already preparing for the hotly anticipated upcoming 2022 BWF World Championships in Tokyo from August 22 to 28.
On the looming World Championships, Pearly said they wish to carry their consistency from the Commonwealth success without aiming for a specific goal.
“Consistency is the most important factor for us, so we aim to work on that.
“We do not want to set any target for ourselves because we believe in focusing on our performance, equipping ourselves with preparation, and giving our best when we play,” said Pearly.
Thinaah also noted that they may have faced some difficulties in a few matches at the Commonwealth Games but managed to bounce back stronger in each game.
A tournament is a tournament, no matter if it is the Commonwealth Games or the World Championships.
“We still get nervous when we play in any quarter-finals and the Championships will not get any easier as we are going to face players ranked in the top 20 in the world.
“So, our trick is to focus on winning point by point, then the results will speak for themselves,” added Thinaah.
In the World Championships draw ceremony conducted on Wednesday, 10th-seeded Pearly-Thinaah were granted a bye to the second round where they will either meet fellow Malaysians Valeree Siow-Low Yeen Yuan or India’s Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand.
They also face potential clashes with world number 5 Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida of Japan and fourth-ranked Kong Hee Yong-Kim So Yeong of South Korea after being drawn into the same quarter. – The Vibes, August 13, 2022
