PEARLY Tan-M. Thinaah’s World Tour Finals campaign ended in disappointment as they crashed out of the group stage in Hangzhou, China.
The world No. 6 duo fell 19-21, 19-21 to India’s Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand in their second Group A match yesterday.
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The loss follows an earlier defeat to Japan’s Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida on Wednesday, sealing their exit from the competition.
Their next match will be against China’s Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning, who have already secured a spot in the semi-finals with two back-to-back victories.
According to The Star, Thinaah said: “It’s disappointing to go out of the Finals in the group stage again.”
Pearly shared her frustration over the match, acknowledging the Indian pair’s aggressive gameplay.
“Their speed and power put a lot of pressure on us ... they were aggressive and we could not keep up,” she said.
This marks another early exit for Pearly-Thinaah, who also failed to progress beyond the group stage in their previous appearance in 2021 in Bali.
Meanwhile, national men’s doubles pair Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani kept their semi-final hopes alive with a hard-fought victory over Taiwan’s Lee Jhe-huei-Yang Po-hsuan.
They recovered from a first-game loss to secure a 15-21, 21-19, 21-13 win.
Sze Fei, who had struggled with cramps in their opening loss to Denmark’s Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, displayed resilience in yesterday’s match.
To reach the semi-finals in their debut, the duo must defeat former Olympic champions Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin.
