PEARLY-THINAAH HUFF AND PUFF THEIR WAY INTO THAILAND OPEN Q-FINALS

BANGKOK, May 15 (Bernama) -- Top national women's doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah may not have been at their best but it was still enough for them to overcome Indonesia’s Lanny Tria Mayasari-Siti Fadia Ramadhanti 21-17, 10-21, 21-15 in the second round of the Thailand Open badminton championships here today.

The hard-fought victory at the Nimibutr Stadium also enabled the world number four Malaysian pair to avenge their shock Malaysia Open first-round defeat in their first meeting in January, which saw the Indonesians triumphing 19-21, 21-14, 21-13.

Thinaah was satisfied with the result, especially since they were not at their best.

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"I think we are happy with the win today, especially after losing to the same opponents at home earlier this year. However, I believe there is still a lot of room for improvement.

"We need to cut down on making simple mistakes going into the next round and stay focused on every single point," she told Bernama after securing their quarter-final spot.

Pearly concurred, saying: "It wasn’t our best performance today, but we are happy to have made it to the quarter-finals.

"Both of us agree that there is still room for improvement. We need to work on our game plan and rotations. Hopefully, we can improve on these aspects and progress further in this tournament.”

Pearly and Thinaah will next face either Thailand's Benyapa Aimsaard-Nuntakarn Aimsaard or China’s Chen Qing Chen-Wang Ting Ge, who will play later today.

However, Malaysia’s other women’s doubles pair, Go Pei Kee-Teoh Mei Xing failed to advance after going down 18-21, 7-21 to Indonesia’s Meilysa Trias Puspitasari-Rachel Allessya Rose.

Meanwhile, four Malaysian men's doubles pairs - Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun, Wan Arif Wan Junaidi-Yap Roy King and Kang Khai Xing-Aaron Tai - are slated to compete later today.

-- BERNAMA