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Tan-Thinaah fall to top Chinese pair in semis
National shuttlers Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan fell to the world number one pair from China, Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan, in the Paris Olympics semi-finals.
Tan and Thinaah lost the match in three sets 21-12, 18-21 and 21-15.
National women’s doubles Pearly Tan-M Thinaah, who created history by entering the semi-finals of the 2024 Paris Olympics, had to concede to the prowess of world number one pair, Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan again today.
In the semi-final at Porte de La Chapelle Arena this morning (evening in Malaysia), the hopes of Malaysians to see Tan-Thinaah advance to the final were crushed when they lost 12-21, 21-18, 15-21 after a 78-minute battle.
However, they still have the chance to chart another milestone by winning the first medal for Malaysia in the event when they meet either world number five Liu Sheng Shu-Tang Ning of China or Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida in the bronze medal decider tomorrow.
Chen-Jia, the Tokyo Olympic silver medallists, dominated from the start to win the first set over the 2022 Commonwealth Games champions.
Tan-Thinaah, who are ranked 12th in the world, then stepped up their tempo to come from behind to tie the score at 15-15, before recording a 21-18 victory to take the match to the rubber set.
However, Tan-Thinaah, after a fierce fight against the Chinese pair, had to concede defeat.
It was Tan-Thinaah’s second loss to the Chinese pair at the Olympics this time, after losing 17-21, 20-22 in the first encounter in Group A, last Saturday.
Yesterday, Tan-Thinaah made history as the country’s first women’s doubles duo to qualify for the semi-finals at the Olympic stage after eliminating the last edition’s bronze medallists Kim So-yeong-Kong Hee-yong of South Korea 21-12, 21-13.
The previous best performance was the pair of Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei who lost to champions Misaki Matsutomo-Ayaka Takahashi in the quarter-finals of the Rio 2016 edition.
Tan-Thinaah, who started the group stage campaign with a loss to Chen-Jia, managed to turn their fortunes around with an extraordinary victory over the Japanese pair, Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara and Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti to survive the “group of death”.
- Bernama
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