KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's top women's doubles, Pearly Tan-M.Thinaah did not get the perfect start they wanted after losing in their first Group B tie at the BWF World Tour Finals yesterday.
Pearly-Thinaah, currently ranked No 9 in the world, lost 23-21, 21-19 to Indonesia's last minute inclusion Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti.
As a result of their early defeat, the French Open champions must win their remaining two matches in Bangkok to secure a place in the semi-finals.
Speaking to the Badminton World Federation (BWF) in their post match interview, Thinaah said: "Today things didn't go as planned because there are a lot of 50-50 shots that I didn't deal with well enough. I wasn't confident with some shots.
"That really affected the game but it's in the past. I hope to focus more and be better for the next match."
Pearly, noted that it was important for her and Thinaah to go back to the drawing board, if they want to spring a surprise in Group B, deemed the group of death.
The other two pairs in the group are world No 1 Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan and world No 7 Zhang Shu Xian-Zheng Yu, both from China.
Only the top two pairs will reach the last four stage.
"We have to analyse the mistakes we made today, but more importantly, we need to keep the communication going and continue to be confident with each other," added Pearly.
Meanwhile in Group A, another local pair, Vivian Hoo-Lim Chiew Sien, also fell short in their opening tie, losing 21-18, 21-13 to South Korea's Jeong Na Eun-Kim Hye Jeong.
The biggest surprise of the day came in the mixed doubles event, when Malaysia's Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing stunned world No 4 Wang Yi Lyu-Huang Dong Ping of China 23-21, 14-21, 21-16 for their maiden victory over the China duo from eight meetings.
The world No 9 Malaysians, just need one more win to reach the semi-finals.
Kian Meng-Pei Jing will face former world champions, Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand today.
The other pair in Group B are homesters Supak Jomkoh-Supissara Paewsampran.