Pearly-Thinaah give home fans a scare
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KUALA LUMPUR: The scores suggested women's doubles Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah had it easy in the Malaysia Masters quarter-finals today.
But the world No. 4 did have a scare in the second game — which got the home crowd at the Axiata Arena a bit tensed — against Indonesia's world No. 9 Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma-Amallia Cahaya Pratiwi.
The Malaysian duo were leading 13-8, but the Indonesians managed to close the gap to 14-15 before the former prevailed 21-14, 21-14 in 34 minutes.
"After the interval in the second game, we were following their game play and gave them a lot of points," said Pearly.
Thinaah added: "We had a discussion, our coach also gave us pointers on how to get our focus back."
Pearly-Thinaah will take on China's world No. 15 Jia Yi Fan-Zhang Shu Xian — who beat Indonesia's world No. 23 Lanny Tria Mayasari-Siti Fadia Ramadhanti 21-15, 15-21, 21-14 — in the semi-finals.
Pearly-Thinaah, who have a 1-1 head-to-head record against Yi Fan-Shu Xian, are chasing their second title in a row after triumphing at the Thailand Masters last week.
In other women's doubles quarter-final action, China's world No. 1 Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning defeated world No. 150 compatriots Keng Shu Liang-Li Hua Zhou 21-10, 21-18.
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