Pearly-Thinaah went down 12-21, 21-18, 15-21 as the world No. 1 pair from China booked their ticket to the final.

However, the Malaysian pair still has a shot at winning the bronze medal tomorrow. They will face Japan’s Matsuyama Nami-Shida Chiharu, who were defeated 21-16, 21-19 by another Chinese pair Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning in the other quarter-final today.

Pearly-Thinaah can hold their heads high as they fought back from the brink of a straight games defeat to force a rubber.

They had an edgy start in the first set and made numerous unforced errors. The Chinese pair led all the way to win 21-12 in 20 minutes.

Things appeared to be going wrong again for Pearly-Thinaah when they gave away easy points in the second game and fell behind 10-15.

However, the Malaysians suddenly picked up the pace and took the lead at 18-16, eventually winning 21-18 in 23 minutes, much to the crowd’s delight.

But Qing Chen-Yi Fan started the rubber game strongly and took a quick 4-0 lead, stretching it to 14-9.

Pearly-Thinaah battled back to close the gap to 15-14, but the Chinese pair proved too strong and went on to take the decisive game in 29 minutes.

This was the world No. 13 pairing’s second defeat to their opponents at these Olympics, having lost 20-22, 16-21 at the group stage opener last week.

Pearly-Thinaah have played six times against the four-time world champions, winning only once,  in straight games 22-20, 21-16 at the All-England championship in April.