PARIS, July 28 – Top national women’s pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah keep their quarter-final hopes alive by scoring an upset win over world number six Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara of Japan in the 2024 Olympic Games badminton competition Sunday morning.
The world number 13 ranked Malaysians gave a spirited display to beat the 2018 and 2019 world champions 18-21, 21-15, 21-16 in the Group A match at Porte De La Chapelle Arena.
Pearly-Thinaah led 11-7 in the opening game but faltered to let the Japanese win 21-18.
Spurred by the support of the 8,000-strong crowd, Pearly-Thinaah played more aggressively to lead early in the second game before romping to a 21-15 win to force a rubber game.
In the decider, Pearly-Thinaah continued to rattle the Japanese with powerful attacks and clinch victory, stretching the head-to-head record to 4-2 in favour of the Malaysians.
In their Paris 2024 opening match yesterday, the Malaysians went down fighting 17-21, 20-22 in 55 minutes to world number one Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan of China.
Pearly-Thinaah need to beat Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti of Indonesia in their final group match on Tuesday to qualify for the quarter-finals.
