KUALA LUMPUR: National top women's doubles Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah went from heroes to zero when they failed to prevent Malaysia from losing 4-1 to India in a crucial top-of-the-table clash at the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championship in Dubai yesterday.
Trailing 2-1, world No 5 Pearly-Thinaah needed to beat Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand Pullela to keep Malaysia's hopes alive, but they ended up losing 23-21, 21-15 to their world No 19 opponents.
The defeat was certainly disappointing considering Pearly-Thinaah had never lost in all their previous four encounters, and without dropping a single game, against Treesa-Gayatri.
And one of these wins was recorded during last year's Birmingham Commonwealth Games mixed team final, in which Pearly-Thinaah clinched the winning point for Malaysia (3-1) and reclaimed the crown from India.
Failing to top Group B means Malaysia will have to endure a more difficult path by being drawn against one of the top three seeds - China, Indonesia or Japan - the winners of Group A, Group C and Group D - in the quarter-finals today.
The odds are now stacked against Malaysia in their bid for a top four finish in the continental meet to qualify for the 16-team Sudirman Cup Finals in May on merit. If Malaysia got knocked out in the last eight, the team are all but assured of a trip to Suzhou as they would make the cut by virtue of being the leading three nations, not otherwise qualified, in the world team rankings.
World No 4 Lee Zii Jia was also a big letdown as he failed to inspire the team to a winning start in the opening men's singles. Zii Jia was beaten 18-21, 21-13, 25-23 by H.S. Prannoy for his first defeat to the world No 9.
Youngster Wong Ling Ching, who was surprisingly fielded at the expense of the more experienced Goh Jin Wei in the women's singles, gave a good account of herself before caving in 21-13, 21-17 to former world champion P.V. Sindhu.
Reigning world men's doubles champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik duly outplayed scratch pair Dhruv Kapila-Chirag Shetty 21-16, 21-10 to make it 2-1, but any hopes of a Malaysian fightback were quickly shattered by Pearly-Thinaah's defeat.
To rub salt to Malaysia's wound, the highly-rated mixed pair of Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei failed to impress, despite being entrusted to take the court instead of world No 6 Tan Kian Meng Lai Pei Jing. Tang Jie-Ee Wei lost the dead rubber match 21-19, 19-21, 21-16 to Ishaan Bhatnagar-Tanisha Crasto.