BANGKOK: Women’s doubles shuttler Pearly Tan is one tough cookie.
Despite battling a cough and physical discomfort, Pearly showed her grit by powering into the SEA Games final with partner M. Thinaah.
Games debutants Pearly-Thinaah were pushed to the limit by Indonesia’s Rachel Allesya-Febi Setianingrum but displayed strength in adversity to come away with a 21-14, 19-21, 21-16 win at Thammasat University in Pathum Thani yesterday.
World No. 2 Pearly-Thinaah refused to give in and fought until the end to claim the victory against the Australian Open champions in 78 minutes.
Standing in their way to the gold today will be another Indonesian pair Febriana Dwipuji-Meilysa Trias.
Pearly was grateful to Thinaah for helping her pull through the gruelling battle.
“I’m recovering from cough and physically, I was not at my best,” said Pearly.
“There were so many long rallies and I was struggling physically. In the end, I just tried to hold on. I’m proud of Thinaah. She played really well.
“Without her, we would not have won the match,” added Pearly.
Thinaah said: “We were both tired but we kept supporting each other.
“Although our performance was not satisfying, we are happy that we managed to pull through.
“We have to give credit to our opponents too. They played very well and pressured us a lot.
“We just wanted to stay firm and be confident in ourselves.”
Pearly-Thinaah have made it into their eighth final of the year after capturing the Thailand Open, Arctic Open and Japan Masters titles and finishing runners-up in the world meet, Japan Open, Indonesian Open and Indonesian Masters.
Today, Pearly-Thinaah hold the advantage over Febriana-Meilysa as they have never lost to them before, winning all three of their previous meetings.
The duo are determined to end Malaysia’s 10-year wait for the gold after Amelia Alicia Anscelly-Soong Fie Cho last won the women’s doubles title in 2015 in Singapore.
“Everyone wants to win the gold but for us, we don’t want to leave with any regrets,” said Thinaah.
“We just want to enjoy the game and give everything we have.”
Pearly said: “It will mean a lot to win the gold as this is our first SEA Games but we just want to prepare for the match, rest well and get ready.”
