IT was a memorable day for the national women's doubles pairs at the Malaysia Masters today.
While everyone expected world No 10 Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah and world No 37 Anna Cheong-Teoh Mei Xing to get beaten by their higher-ranked pairs from Japan, the Malaysians turned on the heat to record upset wins to reach the quarter-finals at Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil.
Pearly-Thinaah saw off world No 2 Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota 21-14, 21-19 while Anna-Mei Xing exacted revenge on world No 6 Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara, winning 21-11, 21-15 win.
Pearly-Thinaah, who have scored several big wins this year, will face recently crowned Malaysia Open champions Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti of Indonesia in the last eight tomorrow.
Thinaah said: "From our experience playing against top pairs, we learned that they are very calm, yet aggressive in their game.
"That is the kind of consistency we want to achieve. We need to also reduce making unnecessary mistakes when we try to rush the game."
In their previous encounter in the semi-finals of the Super 500 Indonesia Masters last month, Apriyani-Siti Fadia came out tops against the Malaysians after a thrilling match.
Anna-Mei Xing, who lost to Mayu-Wakana in the Malaysia Open quarter-finals last week, attributed their success to doing their homework.
"We thought about what went wrong the last time, and we really worked on it. Coming into the match, we only focused on what needed to be done," said Anna.
Mei Xing said it was a huge mental breakthrough to upset the Japanese pair.
"Mayu-Wakana didn't play too differently from the last time. We were not strong mentally then, especially when they caught up with us after winning too many points.
"This time, we didn't break. When they won one or two points, we made sure to come back to win more. It was a mental breakthrough and we're really happy with that," said Mei Xing.
Mei Xing-Anna, who have yet to win a Super 500 title, will play South Koreans Jeong Na Eun-Kim Hey Jeong today for a place in the last four.
On their confidence for tomorrow's match, Mei Xing, who partnered Anna to beat South Korea's world No 3 Lee So Hee-Shin Seung Chan last week, said: "We can't really say much because by now, the Koreans would have studied our game.
"There are no expectations, I believe we are mentally prepared to face any opponents."