KUALA LUMPUR: Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan emerged to be the first national badminton women’s double to reach the semi-final at the Olympic Games 2024 after defeating the Olympics bronze medallist, Kim So Yeong-Kong Hee Yong from South Korea 21-12,21-13 in 37 minutes.
Following the victory, Pearly-Thinaah will meet the world number one pair from China, Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan who defeated the number 21 Bulgarian sisters Gabriela Stoeva-Stefani Stoeva in the quarter final in a straight game 21-15, 21-8.
Earlier the Malaysian pair had lost to the top-seeded Chinese pair 17-21, 20-22 in their opening group stage match.
As reported by FMT, after the match Pearly, 24, told Badminton World Federation (BWF) that the match was important not only for themselves but also the South Koreans.
“We reminded ourselves to stay calm and enjoy the rallies during the match,” she said.
Thinaah, 26, said they do not want to lose focus over their history –making feat entering the semi-final and they are now concentrating on the next match.
“We are proud of each other. We tried to enjoy every single rally and that had helped us in the match with the support of our coaches,” she said.
