Paris: Malaysian women’s doubles World No. 12 pair, Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan, secured a spot in the quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics after defeating the Indonesian duo and World No. 8 Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti, in their final Group A match on Tuesday.
Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan delivered an impressive performance, winning in straight sets 21-18, 21-9 against their Indonesian opponents at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena.
This victory allows Tan/Muralitharan to advance to the top eight as the group’s runners-up, behind the World No. 1 pair from China, Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan, who won all three of their matches.
Tan/Muralitharan had only lost to Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan in their opening match, before defeating the world-ranked sixth pair from Japan, Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara on Monday, and then Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadia on Tuesday.
This achievement makes them the second Malaysian women’s doubles pair to reach the quarterfinals at the Olympics, following the duo Vivian Hoo/Woon Khe Wei, who reached the quarterfinals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
However, Vivian and Woon Khe Wei were unable to progress to the semifinals, losing to the Japanese pair, Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi.
The draw for the women’s doubles quarterfinals is scheduled to take place after the completion of all group-stage matches.
After the match, Tan/Muralitharan revealed they had been plagued by nerves since yesterday in anticipation of their match against the Indonesian pair, Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti.
Tan/Muralitharan explained that the situation was tense as they faced a must-win situation to advance to the quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics.
“Today’s match went according to plan. However, as we entered the court, we felt nervous because it was a must-win match.”
“We were quite stressed since yesterday, thinking about today’s match. It was quite difficult for us at the beginning of the game, and we gave away unnecessary points.”
“However, we supported each other, and from there, we regained our rhythm and confidence,” Muralitharan told the Badminton World Federation (BWF) after the match.
Meanwhile, Pearly Tan commented that the match against Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia felt like a battle against themselves as they desperately wanted to win to reach the quarterfinals.
“We were essentially playing against ourselves in this match. As Thinaah mentioned, it was a match we needed to win.”
“It was mentally challenging because we had to stay consistent and calm. We made a lot of easy mistakes in the first set, especially myself, due to the pressure of wanting to win.”
“However, Thinaah helped to calm and support me. This was an important factor that helped us win the match,” added Tan.
In another intense group stage match, World No. 2 Baek Ha Na/Lee So Hee who uncharacteristically lost to World No. 25 Maiken Fruergaard/Sara Thygesen of Denmark 18-21, 21-9, 14-21 last Saturday, didn’t repeat the mistake again by seeing off World No. 9 Jongkolphan Kititharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai of Thailand 21-9, 21-12 to advance to the quarterfinals as runners-up of Group D, while Fruergaard/Thygesen continued their strong run to top Group D with a 21-16, 21-12 victory over World No. 15 Margot Lambert/Anne Tran of France.
