<figure id="attachment_3007564" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3007564" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-3007564" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/3bee99a8-1-pearly-tan-dan-m-thinaah-indo-master-match-bernama-120325.webp" alt="pearly thinaah" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3007564" class="wp-caption-text">Pearly Tan-M Thinaah became the first Malaysian pair to lift the women’s doubles title at the French Open in 2022. (Bernama pic)</figcaption></figure>
PETALING JAYA: National women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M Thinaah were made to struggle by a much lower-ranked Taiwanese pair in the opening round of the French Open before prevailing to enter the last 16.
The world No 2 pair, who were runners-up in the World Championship, started off slowly, but got their act together before beating world No 16 duo Hsu Yin-Hui-Lin Jhih Yun 21-16, 22-24, 21-12 in 47 minutes.
The Malaysians, who are hoping to win a third title this season, will meet the winners of the match between Japan’s Nanako Hara-Riko Kiyose and China&#8217;s Bao Li Jeng-Zhang Shu Xian in the next round.
Pearly-Thinaah created badminton history at the French Open in 2022 when they became the first Malaysian women’s pair to win the title.
They have reached six finals this season.
Jun Hao suffers 9th first-round exit
Malaysia’s top singles shuttler Leong Jun Hao, who has suffered eight first-round exits this season, added another to his list at the French Open after losing to reigning Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen from Denmark.
Axelsen, playing his fourth tournament since his return to competitive badminton following a six-month layoff due to an injury, won 21-16, 21-15 in 43 minutes.
Before this, Jun Hao had lost in the first rounds of the Denmark Open, the Korea Open, the Japan Open, the Malaysia Masters, the Badminton Asia Championships, the All England Championships, the Indonesia Masters, and the Malaysia Open.
It was the second encounter between the players, with Axelsen winning both.
Malaysia’s chances of having a men’s singles representative at the World Tour Finals in December are as good as gone as Jun Hao is currently No 25 in the World Tour rankings. Only the top eight qualify for the prestigious Super 1000 championship.
There are only five more tournaments to go before the World Tour Finals. Lee Zii Jia has dropped to No 72 in the list after skipping most of the tournaments this year because of an injury.

MatchPoint Times

Pearly-Thinaah made to sweat in French Open

The world No 2 pair beat Taiwan‘s Hsu Yin-Hui- Lin Jhih Yun, ranked world No 16, in three hard-fought games.

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