PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s world No 3 women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M Thinaah booked a quarter-final berth at the China Open but not before being made to work hard by the 99th ranked Japanese pair Rui Hirokami-Sayaka Hobara.
The more experienced Malaysian pair had to bring out their best before winning 21-17, 21-13 in their second round match at the Olympic Sports Centre Gymnasium in Changzhou.
Pearly-Thinaah took 38 minutes to overcome the Japanese pair who were only playing together for the fourth time in BWF World Tour championships.
The Japanese pair met the Malaysians in the Thailand Open semi-finals for the first time in May and lost in straight games.
Pearly-Thinaah will play the winners of the match between Indonesia’s Fabriana Dwipuji Kusuma-Amalia Cahaya Pratiwi and Yuki Fukushima-Mayu Matsumoto from Japan.
No Malaysian women’s doubles pair have ever made it to the China Open finals.