KUALA LUMPUR: World No. 7 Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah finally ran out of steam, exiting the quarter-finals of the Denmark Open after a hard-fought 22-20, 21-19 defeat to Japan's Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi in Odense on Friday.
The Malaysian duo put up a brave fight, but their resistance came to an end against the world No. 6 pair. Despite the loss, Pearly-Thinaah deserve credit for their never-say-die attitude, battling valiantly in what was a rematch of last week's epic Arctic Open semi-final in Finland, which lasted one hour and 46 minutes.
In the second game, Pearly-Thinaah staged a series of comebacks, recovering from 6-1, 9-4, and 15-10 deficits to push their opponents to the brink at 20-19, before Iwanaga-Nakanishi finally sealed the victory.
It marked only Pearly-Thinaah's second defeat in six meetings against the Japanese pair.
Since their commendable fourth-place finish at the Paris Olympics, Pearly-Thinaah have been in excellent form, reaching three finals in their last five tournaments.
They claimed the Hong Kong Open title and were runners-up at both the Korea Open and the Arctic Open.
The duo will now take a well-earned break before returning to action next month at the Kumamoto Masters in Japan.