KUALA LUMPUR: Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah were so composed and patient that they weren't even flustered after losing the first set to Japan's Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara in a vital Group A match at the Paris Olympics today.
After going down in a closely contested match to China's World No. 1 Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan yesterday, the Malaysian duo found themselves thrust into a must-win match against two-time world champions Mayu-Wakana.
And things took a turn for the worse at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena, when world No. 13 Pearly-Thinaah lost the first set 18-21.
But Pearly-Thinaah began an amazing fightback to win the next two games, 21-15, 21-16, and produced a feel-good day for Malaysia at the Olympics.
Pearly attributed their rousing win in the 73-minute battle to a "more patient" game.
She said they adopted this approach after learning from their mistakes in the defeat to Qing Chen-Yi Fan earlier.
"Against Qing Chen-Yi Fan, we were leading, and we tried to get simple points, but made errors instead.
"So for this match (against Mayu-Wakana), we reminded each other to be more patient and enjoy the rallies. That's how we took over from the second game onwards."
Thinaah said they took the positives from yesterday's setback and carried them into today's game.
"We only wanted to give our best and didn't want to think about yesterday's defeat. We played like we had nothing to lose.
"We enjoyed every point that we played, and I think that helped us in this match.
"We are happy with our game but there is still room for improvement. For now we want to rest well and focus on the next match."
The win over world No. 6 Mayu-Wakana has rekindled Pearly-Thinaah's hopes of reaching the Olympic quarter-finals. However, they need to overcome Indonesia's world No. 9 Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti on Tuesday.