KUALA LUMPUR: Women's doubles Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah were unable to end their losing streak against Japan's world No. 4 Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida at the World Tour Finals (WTF) in Hangzhou today.
The world No. 6 Malaysians were edged 13-21, 21-17, 21-18 in a thrilling Group A opener that lasted 74 minutes.
It was Pearly-Thinaah's 11th defeat in 12 matches to Matsuyama-Shida.
The Malaysians now face a must-win situation against India's Treesa Jolly-Gayathri Gopichand in their second group match tomorrow (Thursday) to keep their semi-final hopes alive in what is dubbed the "Group of Death."
In another group match, world No. 1 Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning of China survived a scare before defeating Treesa-Gayathri 20-22, 22-20, 21-14 in 48 minutes