Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan’s Hong Kong Open Victory, A Gift for Malaysia Day Celebration

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Congratulations to Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan for winning the 2024 Hong Kong Open.
Congratulations to Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan for winning the 2024 Hong Kong Open.

Hong Kong: “This victory is a gift for Malaysia Day.”

Those were the words of Malaysian women’s doubles player Thinaah Muralitharan, who, along with her partner Pearly Tan, triumphed in winning the Hong Kong Open on Sunday.

Highlights of Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan vs. Liu Sheng Shu/Tan Ning in the 2024 Hong Kong Open final:

Malaysia Day is a public holiday held on 16 September every year to commemorate the establishment of the Malaysian federation on that date in 1963.

After last winning a BWF World Tour title two years ago, Malaysia’s World No. 8 women’s doubles pair created a sensation by defeating Chinese duo, the World No. 3 Liu Sheng Shu/Tan Ning in straight sets, 21-14, 21-14.

What’s more impressive, Tan/Muralitharan needed only 37 minutes to overcome the Chinese pair in this BWF Super 500 tournament.

“During Malaysia’s Independence Day last month, we reached the final but did not manage to win,” said Muralitharan in an interview with BWF.

“Perhaps God has given us another chance to win here. We are very happy to have achieved this victory today and want to dedicate it to all Malaysians in celebration of Malaysia Day tomorrow.”

“Thank you to all the fans in Malaysia for supporting us.”

Commenting on their win over Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning, Thinaah said they did not focus too much on the victory but planned to finish the game early.

“We wanted to finish the match early, but because of that, we also made some easy and unnecessary mistakes,” explained Muralitharan.

“We will take this as a lesson for the next match. Nonetheless, we are delighted with this victory, and it greatly helps boost our confidence.”

The victory also ended Tan/Muralitharan’s streak of four losses against the Chinese pair, with their last win coming last year at the Japan Open.

As champions, Tan/Muralitharan took home a cash prize of USD 33,180 (approximately RM 142,709).

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