Magnificent Pearly-Thinaah smash into Arctic Open final

 

National women’s shuttlers Pearly Tan-M Thinaah celebrating after winning their semifinal match which lasted one hour and 42 minutes. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: 

National women’s shuttlers Pearly Tan-M Thinaah made it a double joy for Malaysian badminton fans when they joined their male counterparts to enter the finals of the 2024 Arctic Open.

The world No 7 pair smashed their way to defeat Japan’s world No 6 Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi 21-19, 19-21, 24-26 in the semifinal last night.

The match at the Energia Areena in Vantaa, Finland lasted one hour and 42 minutes.

The duo who captured the Hong Kong Open a month ago, have now won four of their five meetings so far against the Japanese pair and are considered serious contenders for the Arctic Open title.

Pearly-Thinaah will play world No 2 Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ming of China in the final tonight.

In the first game, the Japanese pair led 11-9 in seven minutes at the break and went on to take a 17-13 lead. But Pearly-Thinaah came from behind to win 21-19 in just 21 minutes.

The second game saw the Japanese pair switching to some attacking play to take a quick 9-3 lead.

Despite a gallant fightback by the Malaysians to reduce the deficit, Iwanaga-Nakanishi went on to win 21-19 in 33 minutes to force a rubber.

The rubber game saw long rallies as both pairs tried to force each other to make errors. After a point-for-point exchange, the Malaysians led 11-10 at the changeover.

The game went into deuce six times before Pearly-Thinaah sealed the issue at 26-24 to cap a magnificent semifinal victory.

Earlier yesterday, men’s doubles shuttlers Goh Sze Wei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani stunned China’s world No 1 Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang 18-21, 21-17, 21-18 to cruise into the final of the BWF Super 500 series. - FMT