Hong Kong Open: Pearly-Thinaah reach second final of the year

The sixth seeds were in excellent form this week in Kowloon, and on Saturday they produced a fine performance to oust Thai sisters Benyapa-Nuntakarn Aimsaard 21-13, 21-18.

The Malaysians deviced the perfect strategy to execute the 36-minute victory, which saw Tan and Thinaah take turns to make life difficult for their opponents in the front court.

Tan delivered most of the potency in their attacks, while Thinaah was crafty in her shot placements for the deserved win.

Standing in their way of a first title this year is Indonesian pair Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Ramadhanti.

Meanwhile in the men’s singles, Ng Tze Yong couldn’t continue his strong run after he lost 19-21, 23-21, 13-21 against Jonatan Christie.

Nonetheless it was a valiant performance by Ng, who showed great fighting spirit throughout this absorbing contest and took plenty of positives ahead of the upcoming Asian Games.

It was the same for Goh Jin Wei, who saw her fairytale run come to an end following a straight game defeat to Zhang Yi Man of China.