PARIS: National women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah are set to face reigning bronze medallists Kim So Yeong-Kong Hee Yong of South Korea in the Paris 2024 Olympics quarter-finals on Thursday.
The draw for the knock-out stage was held after the completion of group fixtures at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena here, last night.
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, So Yeong-Hee Yong clinched bronze after beating compatriots Lee So Hee-Shin Seung Chan in the third-place playoff.
In their only previous meeting against Pearly-Thinaah at the 2021 World Tour Finals group stage, the Koreans triumphed with a 21-14 21-14 victory.
If Pearly-Thinaah clear the quarter-finals against the world number 10, the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Champions would likely face another acid test against China’s four-time world champions Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan, after going down 17-21, 20-22 to the latter in the Group A match on Saturday.
On paper, the Chinese pair should easily eliminate Gabriela Stoeva-Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria to make it to the semi-finals.
After losing to Qing Chen-Yi Fan, the world number 13 Pearly-Thinaah stunned Japan’s two-time world champions Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara the next day and world number nine pair Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti today, to qualify to the quarter-finals as group runners-up.
In the other half of the bracket, world number two Baek Ha Na-Lee So Hae of South Korea would challenge China’s Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning, while Japan’s Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida will face Denmark’s Maiken Fruergaard-Sara Thygesen. — BERNAMA
