KUALA LUMPUR: Defending champions Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah suffered only their second first-round defeat of the season after crashing out of the Kumamoto Masters in Japan against a Japanese pair featuring familiar nemesis Chiharu Shida on Tuesday.
The world No. 4 failed to capitalise on a promising start, going down 18-21, 21-13, 21-14 to Shida and her new partner Ririna Hiramoto in the opening hurdle of the Super 500 event.
Coincidentally, their only previous opening-round defeat this season also came on Japanese soil, at the Japan Open in Tokyo, in July.
The setback also ended an impressive run of three consecutive tournaments in which the duo had reached at least the semi-finals.
Although Hiramoto-Shida are ranked a lowly world No. 214, the Japanese combination were never going to be easy opponents, particularly given Shida’s impressive record against the Malaysians.
The former Olympic bronze medallist previously enjoyed a commanding 13-3 head-to-head record against Pearly-Thinaah alongside her former partner Nami Matsuyama.
Shida’s new partnership with Hiramoto is still in its infancy, with Kumamoto marking only their third tournament together.
However, the Japanese pair have already shown promise, reaching the French Open quarter-finals last month.
For Pearly-Thinaah, the defeat was particularly disappointing given their resurgence following injury troubles earlier this season.
They had reached the Asian Games semi-finals before capturing the Denmark Open title and finishing runners-up at the French Open last month.
Those performances had raised expectations of another strong showing in Kumamoto, where they defeated Japan’s Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi in last year’s final.
National women’s doubles head coach Rosman Razak had also expressed confidence that the pair had overcome their most difficult phase and were capable of consistently challenging for titles again.
Pearly-Thinaah will now look to bounce back at next week’s Hong Kong Open before turning their attention to the season-ending World Tour Finals in Hangzhou from Dec 9-13.