KUALA LUMPUR: World No 10 Pearly Tan-M.Thinaah have apologised to Malaysian fans after crashing out in the second round of the Malaysia Open at the Axiata Arena today.
The 2021 Swiss Open champions, who had been enjoying a good run recently, only have themselves to blame, following a 21-19, 21-14 defeat to China's Zhang She Xian-Zheng Yu.
The China duo, who reached the All England final in March, had defeated Thailand's world No 8 Jonkolphan Kititharakul-Rawinda Prajonjai in the first round on Tuesday.
Thinaah said: "We are really disappointed with the way we played today. We were not patient and we played into our opponents' game.
"We were not in any way pressured by the huge crowd support. In fact, they had helped us a lot, and we would like to apologise for letting them down.
"If we could replay the match, we would play our game and be more aggressive."
She Xian-Zheng Yu, ranked No 33 in the world, will face Indonesia's Febby Valencia Dwijayanti Gani-Ribka Sugiarto in the quarter-finals tomorrow.
Pearly-Thinaah, who are bound for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games this month, have vowed to put their Malaysia Open disappointment behind them to focus on next week's Super 500 Malaysia Masters.
"The Malaysia Masters will be our last tournament before the Commonwealth Games.
"We still have a few more days to rest and work on improving our game. After that, it's a couple of weeks before heading to Birmingham. We want to do well, try and earn a podium finish," added Pearly.