Pearly-Thinaah, Tang Jie-Ee Wei face tough tests in WTF semis

Pearly-Thinaah, Tang Jie-Ee Wei face tough tests in WTF semis

KUALA LUMPUR: Women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah will get an immediate chance to avenge their defeat to Japan’s Mayu Matsumoto-Yuki Fukushima after being drawn to face them in the World Tour Finals (WTF) semi-finals on Saturday.

World No. 2 Pearly-Thinaah suffered a surprise 21-15, 16-21, 21-19 defeat to world No. 5 Matsumoto-Fukushima in a Group A match on Friday, but both pairs advanced to the semi-finals on countback.

As group winners, Pearly-Thinaah avoided a last-four meeting against world No. 1 Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning, who topped Group B.

Despite the setback, the Malaysians still hold a healthy 5-2 head-to-head record against the Japanese pair and will be fired up to reach their maiden final at the lucrative year-ending tournament, which offers a total prize purse of US$3 million (RM12.23 million).

In the other women’s doubles semi-final, Sheng Shu-Tan Ning will take on South Korea’s world No. 7 Baek Ha Na-Lee So Hee.

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The Chinese pair had earlier thrashed the Koreans 21-7, 21-10 in their Group B meeting.

Meanwhile, world champions Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei face China’s world No. 2 Jiang Zhen Bang-Wei Ya Xin in the mixed doubles semi-finals.

Tang Jie-Ee Wei defeated Zhen Bang-Ya Xin in straight games to become Malaysia’s first mixed doubles world champions in Paris in August. Revenge will be firmly on the minds of the Chinese pair, who will enjoy home support.

The 4-2 head-to-head record favours Zhen Bang-Ya Xin, but Tang Jie-Ee Wei will be determined to repeat last year’s feat of reaching the final.

In the other mixed doubles semi-final, China’s world No. 1 Feng Yan Zhe-Huang Dong Ping will meet Japan’s world No. 8 Hiroki Midorikawa-Natsu Saito.

With a winners’ purse of US$252,000 (RM1.03 million) on offer, closely fought battles are expected in Saturday’s semi-finals.