Pearly-Thinaah one win away from French Open final

KUALA LUMPUR: Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah's late-season resurgence gathered further momentum on Friday as they booked a French Open semi-final spot, putting them another step closer to a first back-to-back World Tour title double.

The world No. 4 pair brushed aside Bulgaria's Gabriela Stoeva-Stefani Stoeva 21-12, 21-15 in just 39 minutes to reach their second semi-final in as many weeks.

Fresh from their Denmark Open triumph last Sunday, the second seeds have yet to drop a game in Paris despite the physical demands of a hectic tournament schedule.

Their latest victory was another encouraging sign after an inconsistent middle stretch of the season, which saw them suffer early exits at several major tournaments.

Although they reached the Taiwan Open final in July and claimed Asian Games bronze last month, Pearly-Thinaah struggled to reproduce the form that brought them three World Tour titles last year.

However, Pearly believes the past two weeks have helped restore their confidence following injury setbacks.

"After the injury, we've been doing well these two weeks. I'm very happy that we've regained our momentum and confidence," she said in a post-match interview with the Badminton World Federation.

"We're enjoying ourselves on court and trusting each other. Our bond on court is very strong."

Pearly was equally pleased with their patience against the Bulgarian sisters, although she admitted they had occasionally rushed their play.

"We did a lot of discussion, and I think we did well with our patience. Towards the end, we were rushing a little, but we kept reminding each other and managed to get back on track," she said.

Their victory extended their head-to-head advantage over the Stoeva sisters to 5-1.

Standing between them and another final are Japan's third seeds, Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi, who defeated compatriots Ririna Hiramoto-Chiharu Shida 21-18, 16-21, 21-15.

The Malaysians hold an 8-2 advantage over the Japanese pair, having won their last four meetings, including the Arctic Open and Kumamoto Masters finals last year.

Despite that encouraging record, Thinaah stressed that recovery would be crucial ahead of Saturday's semi-final.

"Mentally and physically, we need to be well prepared, especially with our recovery," she said.

"We're grateful to have our mentor and physio with us. They've been helping us a lot with our recovery."

Pearly-Thinaah, who captured their breakthrough French Open title in 2022, have won multiple World Tour titles in a season but have never triumphed at consecutive tournaments.