KUALA LUMPUR – National women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan will be hoping to make their mark at the upcoming Malaysian Open taking place from June 28 to July 3.
The world number 10 duo said they are looking forward to be playing in front of the Malaysian crowd.
“I am happy to be playing at home again and am eager to have fellow Malaysians cheering us on. We want to make it further in the tournament, but it is important to focus on one game at a time,” said Pearly today at the Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM).
Thinaah echoed her teammate’s words, saying, “Since we are playing on home ground, we want to give our best performance and focus on each game as we go.
“There will always be pressure no matter where we play, what is crucial is how we manage it on the court.”
The pair will take on China’s Liu Xuan Xuan-Xia Yu Ting in the opening round of the Malaysian Open.
“We recently played them in the Thailand Open. Yes, we did win during that match, but they have been improving since then as well, so we need to be prepared for a fight,” said Thinaah after her training session.
Pearly added that one aspect the pair have been focusing on is their fitness and strength.
“We need to be stronger, most matches we make it to the second set and our fitness drops.
“It is important that we work towards being able to sustain ourselves physically in the third set if it comes to that,” she said.
During the Indonesian Masters, the duo exited the tournament in the semi-finals at the hands of Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti from Indonesia.
While in the Indonesian Open, they lost in the round of 16 against Japanese pair Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota.- The Vibes, June 24, 2022.
