KUALA LUMPUR: A weary Pearly Tan vowed to fight on as she and M. Thinaah hope to deliver their first World Tour title on home soil by winning the Malaysia Masters tomorrow.
The world No 11 are expecting another lengthy battle when they face Baek Ha Na-Lee So Hee of South Korea in the women's doubles final at Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil.
Pearly-Thinaah have already endured an astonishing 332 minutes on the court over the last four days, including the 92 minutes they took to pull off a sensational 21-19, 23-21 win over Korea's fifth seeds Jeong Na Eun-Kim Hye Jeong today.
For the second match in a row, Pearly-Thinaah proved once again why they deserved to be called the "comeback queens".
On Friday, Pearly Thinaah recovered from 16-13 down in the second and 6-1 in the third en route to triumphing 13-21, 21-19, 21-16 over Japan's Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota.
But the Commonwealth Games gold medallists took it up by a notch in their pulsating duel with Na Eun-Hye Jeong, overturning a 10-point deficit at 12-2 in the second game to win in straight games.
In the opening game, they also had to fight back after trailing 14-9 at one point.
"The moment we won it, it was just surreal," said Pearly.
"The past few matches had been exhausting, but the strong support from the home fans motivated us to keep pushing and see out the matches.
"When we were trailing far behind (in the second game), Thinaah and I decided that we should not care too much about the deficit and focus on winning the rallies instead.
"We had the first in hand, so we could afford to be more patient than them as they needed to win the second to force a decider.
"We got our strategy spot on."
Pearly-Thinaah have now reached the third final of their World Tour career and will be out to maintain a 100 per cent winning record.
The Malaysians won the 2021 Swiss Open and the 2022 French Open.
With Ha Na-So Hee as their last hurdle, Pearly-Thinaah stand a chance to become the first World Tour winners on home soil in five years.
There has not been a local champion either in the Malaysia Open or the Malaysia Masters since 2018 when the now-retired Lee Chong Wei won the Malaysia Open.
Pearly-Thinaah also stand to become the first women's doubles champions in the Malaysia Masters since Chin Eei Hui-Wong Pei Tty in 2012.
"We did not want to think too far ahead because of what we learned in the past. We realised that the more eager we want to win, the outcome will always turn out otherwise," said Pearly.
"Although we had beaten Ha Na-So Hee in the semi-finals of the French Open, it counts for nothing. Then, they had just teamed up not too long ago. I am sure they will be harder to play against this time.
"It has been an exhausting journey so far. We hope to recover and give whatever is left to overcome our last barrier.
"No matter how tired we are, we will keep fighting. We have the crowd behind us, and it will likely make a difference."