Pearly-Thinaah Storm To Second Successive Hong Kong Open Final

KUALA LUMPUR, National top women's doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah powered their way to back-to-back Hong Kong Open finals when they stunned top seed Baek Ha Na-Lee So Hee in the semi-finals of the 2024 edition in Kowloon, today.The third seed duo survived a gruelling 74-minute rubber set battle against Ha Na-So Hee before prevailing 22-20, 17-21, 21-15, in the Super 500 tournament held in Hong Kong Coliseum.This victory marks their third win over the world number two duo in four encounters.Both pairs first met in the semi-finals of the French Open 2022, which went to the Malaysians way, 21-13, 21-17.Pearly and Thinaah, the current world number eight, will now face either second-seeded Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning from China or fourth-seeded Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong from South Korea, who meet in the other semifinal later.Today's result offers Pearly and Thinaah a chance to bounce back after their loss in last year's final against Indonesia's Apriyani Rahayu and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti, w ho edged them out 21-14, 22-24, 9-21.The Paris 2024 Olympic Games semi-finalists last claimed a title at the 2022 French Open, where they defeated Japan's Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara 21-19, 18-21, 21-15.However, there was no such luck for national mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei as they missed out on the final after going down to top seeds Feng Yan Zhe-Huang Dong Ping of China.Although the Malaysians had beaten the world number two pair in the group stage of the recently-concluded Paris Olympics, Tang Jie-Ee Wei could not repeat that feat and went down fighting 14-21, 21-23 in 56 minutes today.Source: BERNAMA News Agency