Malaysia’s top-seeded women’s doubles pair, Pearly Tan and M Thinaah, lost their final Group A match at the World Tour Finals but still finished top of the group thanks to a superior game difference.
The duo fell 15-21, 21-16, 19-21 to Japan’s Yuki Fukushima and Mayu Matsumoto in an intense 82-minute clash at the Olympics Sports Centre Gymnasium.
Despite the defeat, Pearly-Thinaah finished ahead of Yuki-Mayu and China’s Jia Yi Fan-Zhang Shu Xian, who were also tied with two wins and one loss each. The group rankings were determined by game difference — the number of games won minus games lost. Pearly-Thinaah had a game difference of +3, while Yuki-Mayu had +2, and the Chinese pair +1.
Yuki-Mayu earned a semi-final spot by narrowly defeating Jia Yi Fan-Zhang Shu Xian, keeping the competition tightly contested.
