National shuttlers Pearly Tan-M Thinaah continued their superb run at the 2024 Hong Kong Open badminton championship by defeating China’s world No 3 pair Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning to capture the women’s doubles title.
Pearly-Thinaah, who moved up one rung to No 8 in the BWF rankings last week, won 21-14, 21-14 in a match that lasted just 35 minutes at the Hong Kong Coliseum in Kowloon.
They became the first Malaysian pair to win the women’s doubles title at the Hong Kong Open.
This is also their first title this year in the BWF Super 500 series after coming close at the Korean Open last month when they lost to another Chinese pair in the final. They last won a BWF Super 500 series title at the French Open in 2022.
They have been having a good run this year, having entered two finals after being placed fourth at the Paris Olympics in July.
With this win, Pearly-Thinaah have now won twice in their five meetings so far against Sheng Shu-Tan Ning in international tournaments.
In what was possibly one of the best matches they had played in their career so far, Pearly-Thinaah took complete control of the court and often returned shots that had the Chinese pair going the wrong way.
With Pearly despatching her deceptive drop shots with superb accuracy coupled with Thinaah’s mesmerising cross-court returns, Sheng Shu-Tan Ning seemed to have no answer to the tenacious Malaysians, who showed excellent teamwork.