Bali: Malaysia’s World No. 18 women’s doubles pair – Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan needed only 29 minutes to beat Fitriani Fitriani/Yulia Yosephine Susanto of Indonesia 21-9, 21-14 in the Indonesia Masters second round on Thursday.
The unseeded Malaysians will play No. 4 seeds Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida of Japan on Friday. This will be Tan/Muralitharan’s fifth quarter-finals of 2021, and their best result was beating Gabriela Stoeva/Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria 21–19, 21–12 for the Swiss Open title on March 7, 2021.
They also made the quarter-finals of the two Thailand Opens that were held in Bangkok in Jan 2021, and also the 2021 All England Championships.
Nevertheless, Tan/Muralitharan are heading for a tough task against World No. 9 Matsuyama/Shida as the Japanese pair holds a 3-0 career head-to-head record against the Malaysians.
Also advancing to the quarter-finals was Malaysia’s mixed doubles pair, Hoo Pang Roon/Cheah Yee See who beat Jones Ralfy Jansen/Linda Efler of Germany, 21-14, 21-19 in 40 minutes. Hoo/Cheah will play No. 1 seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand on Friday.
In women’s singles, Thailand’s World No. 27 Phittayaporn Chaiwan pulled off a huge upset to down compatriot and World No. 8 Ratchanok Intanon 18-21, 21-12, 21-17 in 54 minutes. Chaiwan will meet Yeo Jia Min of Singapore in the quarter-finals.
