4 days ago
Istora revenge for Pearly-Thinaah
KUALA LUMPUR: It was an eye for an eye type of revenge. You beat me in my backyard, and I do the same to you.
That was the script for women's pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah who defeated Indonesia's Lanny Tria Mayasari-Siti Fadia Ramadhanti at Istora Senayan in Jakarta today to reach the Indonesia Open quarter-finals.
The world No. 4 dropped the first game but managed to silence the Istora Senayan crowd with an 18-21, 21-6, 21-17 win over world No. 20 Lanny-Fadia in 59 minutes.
The Indonesian pair had humbled Pearly-Thinaah in the Malaysia Open at the Axiata Arena in January.
"We were prepared, not only against them but the whole of Istora. It is always like this here, and we just stayed focused," said Thinaah.
"We have belief in ourselves that we could do it while the coaches were also motivating us when we were trailing (in the third game)."
Playing their fourth consecutive tournament since their Thailand Open victory, Pearly admitted that they were tired, but the will to win was high.
"We were tired, but we trusted each other. Both of us were nervous, but we managed to calm overselves down to push for the win," said Pearly.
It was their second win over Lanny-Fadia in three meetings, and beating their rivals at their own den will surely boost Pearly-Thinaah's confidence to capture the Super 1000 event.
Pearly-Thinaah will play either compatriots Ong Xin Yee-Carmen Ting or Japan's world No. 5 Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanashi in the last eight.
Pearly-Thinaah also reached the Indonesia Open quarter-finals last year before losing to China's Olympic champions Jia Yi Fan-Chen Qing Chen.
