Pearly Tan and M. Thinaah have guaranteed Malaysia an Asian Games women’s doubles badminton medal after defeating India’s Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly 21-18, 21-9 in the quarter-finals.
The Malaysian world No. 5 pair’s progress to the semi-finals assures them of at least bronze, ending the country’s 12-year wait for a women’s doubles medal at the Games. Vivian Hoo and Woon Khe Wei were Malaysia’s previous medallists in the event, having taken bronze at Incheon in 2014.
Tan and Thinaah will next face China’s world No. 1 pairing of Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning, with a place in the final at stake. The semi-final presents a demanding test on the available head-to-head evidence, but the Malaysians said their focus would remain on their own performance and on carrying their tournament momentum forward.
Quarter-final win ends long medal wait
Tan and Thinaah came through the opening game against Gopichand and Jolly by 21-18 before taking firmer control in the second, winning it 21-9. The result at Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium made them the first Malaysian women’s doubles pair to secure an Asian Games medal since Hoo and Woon’s 2014 bronze.
That outcome carries particular weight after a difficult recent period for the pair. The Star reported that Pearly had been managing injury and self-confidence issues, while Thinaah described recent months as challenging. Their quarter-final display nevertheless put them into the medal positions and preserved their chance to improve on bronze.
Stadium Astro reported that Tan and Thinaah were Malaysia’s only remaining competitors in the badminton event after men’s doubles pair Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin Rumsani lost in straight games to China’s Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang. That leaves the women’s pair carrying Malaysia’s remaining medal interest in the competition.
The reported record also includes three finals in which the Malaysians lost to Liu and Tan after their Hong Kong Open victory: the Indonesia Open, Japan Open and World Championships last year, according to Stadium Astro. The Star identified the World Championships final as the most recent and most painful of those defeats. Those results provide a clear measure of the challenge, while the earlier three wins show that the match-up has not been one-sided throughout.
World No. 1 opponents await in semi-final
Liu and Tan reached the last four with a 21-15, 21-15 victory over Taiwan’s Hsieh Pei-shan and Hung En-tzu. On the reported record between the two pairs, the Chinese duo hold a 10-3 advantage over Tan and Thinaah.
The Malaysians’ latest victory over Liu and Tan came in the 2024 Hong Kong Open final. Stadium Astro reported that they have lost six meetings since then, while The Star said the most recent of those defeats was in last year’s World Championships final. The pair have not met the Chinese combination this year, according to Stadium Astro.
The numbers make Liu and Tan the favourites on paper, but they do not decide the semi-final. Tan said the Malaysians intended to approach it one match at a time, acknowledging the difficulty of the task while seeking to take the feeling and momentum built from their earlier matches into the contest.
Thinaah said the pair had concentrated on themselves and each other in recent weeks. Their stated aim was to give their best without regrets, an approach that will be tested against opponents who have held the upper hand across most of their previous meetings.
For Tan and Thinaah, the immediate achievement is already clear: a place on the Asian Games podium and Malaysia’s first women’s doubles medal there for 12 years. The semi-final against the world’s leading pair now offers an opportunity to improve on the guaranteed bronze and reach the final.