Badminton

Not a total loss for duo

It is not the end of the world for women's doubles Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, who crashed out in the semi-finals of the Indonesia Masters yesterday.

Malaysia's interest in the Super 500 event ended in the last-four stage when the world No 10 let slip a one-game advantage to succumb 21-23, 21-14, 21-14 to Indonesia's Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti.

The defeat saw Pearly-Thinaah miss out on their maiden Super 500 final appearance. Their best achievement prior was winning the Super 300 Swiss Open in Basel last year.

Apriyani-Siti Fadia, fresh from winning the Hanoi Sea Games gold last month, will take on world No 1 and reigning world champions Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan of China in the final today.

The China pair, in their semi-finals match, made easy work of South Korea's Jeong Na Eun-Kim Hye Jeong with a commanding 21-12, 21-13 win.

BA of Malaysia (BAM) coaching director Rexy Mainaky was not too critical of Pearly-Thinaah's performance.

The Indonesian was pleased with his charges' fighting spirit playing in front of a packed Istora Senayan Stadium in Jakarta.

"The defeat today (yesterday) was not all about making unforced errors.

"My focus was more on Pearly-Thinaah's fighting spirit. They didn't just fight against Apriyani-Siti Fadia but also the home fans at Istora Senayan. It's never easy.

"It is a good learning curve for Pearly-Thinaah, who I am sure will bounce back at the Indonesia Open next week," said Rexy.

The former Olympic champion believes Pearly-Thinaah and the other pairs would have already picked up valuable pointers from their experiences at the Indonesia Masters.

"On paper, we have one pair who made the semi-finals and two others in the quarter-finals.

"I see that as something positive."

On Friday, world No 6 men's doubles Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and world No 12 Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani crashed out in the quarter-finals.

Wooi Yik and Izzuddin had suffered from earlier bouts of food poisoning but still decided to continue with their respective matches.

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