Pearly-thinaah may give Uber Cup a miss to better prepare for Olympics

Women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-m. Thinaah (pic) may not be seeing action in the Uber Cup Finals from April 27-May 5 in Chengdu.

National coaching director Rexy Mainaky is thinking of giving Pearly-thinaah more time instead to focus on their preparations for the Paris Olympics in July.

Rexy pointed out that Malaysia do not have a realistic chance to challenge for the title and it is better for the pair to put all their efforts into getting ready for the Olympics.

“I’m thinking perhaps it’s better for Pearly-thinaah to use the time during the Uber Cup to prepare for the Olympics,” said Rexy after overseeing a training session at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara yesterday.

“It’s not that I’m not taking the team meet seriously but I have to be realistic about our chances. There’s no point if they play and win and we only end up getting one point.

“If we are in the position of countries like China, Japan or South Korea and we have a chance of winning the title, then of course we can’t afford to leave out our top players.

“If it is also the last tournament for Pearly-thinaah before the Olympics, I will definitely consider selecting them.

“But they still have many tournaments coming up like the Asian Championships (April 9-14), Malaysian Masters (May 21-26), Singapore Open (May 28-June 2) and Indonesian Open (June 4-9), so they will have no issues with match fitness or losing their competitive edge before the Olympics,” added Rexy.

The Indonesian, though, stressed that nothing was confirmed yet.

“We will discuss whether to select Pearlythinaah or not in a meeting today,” said Rexy. “We will talk to the players themselves and the management before coming to a final decision. So, nothing is confirmed yet.”

If Pearly-thinaah are left out of the team, Malaysia’s other options in the doubles will likely be Teoh Mei Xing and youngsters Go Pei Kee, Low Yeen Yuan and Tan Zhing Yi.

Malaysia did not qualify for the team meet on merit and only made it through the backdoor after losing 0-3 to Indonesia in the quarter-finals of the Asia Team Championships which also acted as the qualifiers for the Uber Cup.

Malaysia have never made it to the semi-finals of the Uber Cup since the tournament’s inception in 1957.

The team’s best result was finishing in the last eight in 2004, 2008 and 2010.

Malaysia have been drawn against Thailand, Taiwan and Australia in Group B.

Only the top two teams will advance to the quarter-finals.