MALAYSIA’S top women’s doubles pair of Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah were crowned champions of the French Open at the Stade Pierre de Coubertine in Paris tonight.

They ended their title drought by defeating Japan’s pairing of Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara 21-19, 18-21, 21-15 in 72 minutes. 

The title is the Pearly and Thinaah’s second and biggest in the Badminton World Federation’s World Tour since securing their Swiss Open title in March last year.

In the first set, Pearly-Thinaah started slow but began making strides to take a commanding 18-10 lead, and managed to hold on to win the first set by the narrowest of margins despite a spirited fightback by the world no. 4 pair.

The world no. 11 faded off in the second set, and lost 18-21 even as they tried to match the prowess of a largely more passionate Matsumoto-Nagahara.

In the decider, Pearly-Thinaah again started off slow and trailed 2-6 at one point, but stepped up their game by committing fewer unforced errors to dominate the set and subsequently win the set by six points.

In 2008, Malaysia’s Wong Pei Tty-Chin Eei Hui finished runners up in the same tournament.

The French Open is a BWF Super 750 series tournament, which offers a prize money of US$49,950 (RM235,000) for doubles’ champions and US$23,625 for singles’ champions. – Bernama, October 30, 2022.