KUALA LUMPUR: Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah enter the Olympic group of death tomorrow in Paris, knowing that even if they win their match against Indonesia's Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti, it may not be enough for their survival.
It could also be all over for the Malaysian duo even before they start their match at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena.
They need luck - a combiation of other factors to favour them.
World No. 13 Pearly-Thinaah are in this situation after they recovered from their 21-17, 22-20 loss to China's world No. 1 Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan to stun Japan's two-time world champions Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara 18-21, 21-16, 21-16.
The critical win over the Japanese pair has revived Pearly-Thinaah's chances of surviving the Group of Death which is stacked with the world's top pairs.
However, their fate could be known even before they begin their final Group A match, slated for 10:10am tomorrow.
Pearly-Thinaah need a favour from four-time world champions Qing Chen-Yi Fan, which is to beat Matsumoto-Nagahara in their final group match at 9:20am.
If world No. 6 Matsumoto-Nagahara upset Qing Chen-Yi Fan, then it's game over for Pearly-Thinaah, even if they defeat world No. 9 Apriyani-Siti.
According to Badminton World Federation regulations, if three or more pairs have an equal number of match wins, the ranking is determined by the difference between total games won and lost, with the greater difference ranked higher.
Currently, Pearly-Thinaah have a games difference of minus one, having won two games and lost three, while Matsumoto-Nagahara stand at plus one, with three games won and two lost.
Even in the best-case scenario of Pearly-Thinaah winning their final match in straight games, they would only have a plus one difference, which would not be enough to surpass Matsumoto-Nagahara, who will finish with at least plus two if they beat Qing Chen-Yi Fan. Qing Chen-Yi Fan, the silver medallists from the Tokyo Olympics, are already guaranteed a top-two finish regardless of other results, as they have a perfect record and a plus four games difference. A similar situation occurred at the Tokyo Games in 2021 when India's Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty were eliminated in the group stage.
Despite winning their final match in straight games against Britain's Sean Vendy-Ben Lane, they finished third behind Indonesia's Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo-Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Taiwan's Lee Yang-Wang Chi Lin, all with two wins each.
Lee Yang-Chi Lin's unexpected victory over the then-world No. 1 Kevin-Marcus secured them the second spot and eventually led them to win their country's first-ever gold in badminton.
Knowing that they are in a highly competitive pool, Pearly believes that all that matters now is giving their utmost best on the court, trusting that if it's good enough, everything will fall into place.
"When we saw the draw, we knew all three matches were going to be tough. We want to give our best and leave the rest up to fate," said Pearly.
"As long as we give everything on court and have no regrets, it's enough for us."
If the Chinese duo do Pearly-Thinaah a favour, all eyes will be on the Malaysians to see if they can defeat Apriyani-Siti, who will surely be out to salvage some pride after losing their earlier two matches.
The two pairs have faced each other six times, with each winning three. Apriyani previously won gold with the now-retired Greysia Polii in Tokyo three years ago.