Thinaah Muralitharan

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Thinaah Muralitharan
தீனா முரளிதரன்
The six medallists in the women's doubles (Thinaah Muralitharan).jpg
Thinaah at the 2022 Commonwealth Games medal ceremony.
Personal information
CountryMalaysia
Born (1998-01-03) 3 January 1998 (age 26)
Klang, Selangor, Malaysia
Height1.64 m (5 ft 5 in)
Years active2013–present
HandednessRight
Coach Hoon Thien How
Rexy Mainaky
Women's & mixed doubles
Highest ranking5 (WD with Pearly Tan, 31 January 2023)
282 (XD with Tee Kai Wun, 3 March 2020)
Current ranking6 (WD with Pearly Tan, 19 November 2024)
Medal record
Women's badminton
Representing Flag of Malaysia 23px.svg  Malaysia
Sudirman Cup
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2021 Vantaa Mixed team
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2023 Suzhou Mixed team
Commonwealth Games
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2022 Birmingham Women's doubles
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2022 Birmingham Mixed team
Asia Team Championships
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2020 Manila Women's team
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2022 Selangor Women's team
World Junior Championships
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2016 Bilbao Mixed team
BWF profile

Thinaah Muralitharan BKS (born 3 January 1998) is a Malaysian badminton player. An Olympian, she and Pearly Tan created history by becoming the first ever Malaysian semi-finalists at the women's doubles event at the 2024 Summer Olympics. She won the gold medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in the women's doubles with partner Pearly Tan and in the mixed team event. [1] [2]

Contents

Career

In 2021, Thinaah and Pearly Tan clinched their first BWF World Tour title at the Swiss Open. [3]

In 2022, Thinaah and Tan claimed the French Open title, becoming the first ever Malaysian women's doubles pair to achieve this feat. [4]

Thinaah and her partner Tan best result in 2023 were finalists in the Malaysia Masters and Hong Kong Open. [5] [6]

Thinaah and Tan became the first ever Malaysian women's doubles pair to advance to the semi-finals of an Olympic Games at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Ranked 13th in the world at the time, they were drawn alongside Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan from China, Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara from Japan, and Apriyani Rahayu and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti from Indonesia, ranked 1st, 6th, and 9th in the world respectively. [7] Having successfully advanced from the group stage with a 2–1 record, they defeated then ranked 7th in the world Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong from Korea in the quarter-finals in straight sets, before falling to Chen and Jia in the semi-finals and Japan's Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida in the bronze medal match.

Thinaah and Tan reached their first final in 2024 at the Korea Open, finished as runner-up to home pair Jeong Na-eun and Kim Hye-jeong. [8]

Personal life

Thinaah is the second child of S. Muralitharan and Parimala Devi Kalalingam. [9] She has an older brother and a younger sister, Selinaah Muralitharan, who is a former Selangor state shuttler. [10] She is fluent in all four main languages spoken in Malaysia: Tamil, Malay, English, and Mandarin, in which she picked up from her ethnic Chinese friends whilst studying at Bukit Jalil Sports School. [11] [12] In October 2024, Thinaah graduated with a Bachelor of Education in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) at Open University Malaysia. She was also conferred a special sports icon award during the convocation. [13]

Awards

YearAwardCategoryResult
2022Selangor Sports Awards2021-2022 Selangor SportswomanWon [14]
National Sports Awards National women's team (with Pearly Tan)Won [15]
2023Nambikkai Star Icon AwardsBest Sports PersonalityWon [16]
2024Dr. Ambedkar International AwardWon [17]
Open University Malaysia 28th ConvocationSports IconWon [13]

Honours

Honours of Malaysia

Achievements

Commonwealth Games

The six medallists in the women's badminton doubles at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Left to right: Chloe Birch and Lauren Smith (England), Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan (Malaysia), Treesa Jolly and Gayathri Gopichand (India). The six medallists in the women's doubles.jpg
The six medallists in the women's badminton doubles at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Left to right: Chloe Birch and Lauren Smith (England), Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan (Malaysia), Treesa Jolly and Gayathri Gopichand (India).

Women's doubles

YearVenuePartnerOpponentScoreResultRef
2022 National Exhibition Centre,
Birmingham, England		 Flag of Malaysia.svg Pearly Tan Flag of England.svg Chloe Birch
Flag of England.svg Lauren Smith 		21–5, 21–8 Med 1.png Gold [19]

BWF World Tour (3 titles, 4 runners-up)

The BWF World Tour, which was announced on 19 March 2017 and implemented in 2018, [20] is a series of elite badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). The BWF World Tours are divided into levels of World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300, and the BWF Tour Super 100. [21]

Women's doubles

YearTournamentLevelPartnerOpponentScoreResultRef
2021 Swiss Open Super 300 Flag of Malaysia.svg Pearly Tan Flag of Bulgaria.svg Gabriela Stoeva
Flag of Bulgaria.svg Stefani Stoeva 		21–19, 21–12Gold medal icon.svgWinner [22]
2022 French Open Super 750 Flag of Malaysia.svg Pearly Tan Flag of Japan.svg Mayu Matsumoto
Flag of Japan.svg Wakana Nagahara 		21–19, 18–21, 21–15Gold medal icon.svgWinner [23]
2023 Malaysia Masters Super 500 Flag of Malaysia.svg Pearly Tan Flag of South Korea.svg Baek Ha-na
Flag of South Korea.svg Lee So-hee 		20–22, 21–8, 17–21Silver medal icon.svgRunner-up [5]
2023 Hong Kong Open Super 500 Flag of Malaysia.svg Pearly Tan Flag of Indonesia.svg Apriyani Rahayu
Flag of Indonesia.svg Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti 		21–14, 22–24, 9–21Silver medal icon.svgRunner-up [6]
2024 Korea Open Super 500 Flag of Malaysia.svg Pearly Tan Flag of South Korea.svg Jeong Na-eun
Flag of South Korea.svg Kim Hye-jeong 		12–21, 11–21Silver medal icon.svgRunner-up [8]
2024 Hong Kong OpenSuper 500 Flag of Malaysia.svg Pearly Tan Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Liu Shengshu
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Tan Ning 		21–14, 21–14Gold medal icon.svgWinner [24]
2024 Arctic Open Super 500 Flag of Malaysia.svg Pearly Tan Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Liu Shengshu
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Tan Ning		12–21, 17–21Silver medal icon.svgRunner-up

BWF International Challenge/Series (5 titles, 2 runners-up)

Women's singles

YearTournamentOpponentScoreResult
2018 Iran Fajr International Flag of Malaysia.svg Lee Ying Ying 11–8, 11–6, 9–11, 11–9Gold medal icon.svgWinner
2018 Dutch International Flag of Denmark.svg Julie Dawall Jakobsen 21–17, 15–21, 11–21Silver medal icon.svgRunner-up

Women's doubles

YearTournamentPartnerOpponentScoreResult
2018 Malaysia International Flag of Malaysia.svg Payee Lim Peiy Yee Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg Cheng Yu-chieh
Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg Chung Kan-yu		21–17, 21–14Gold medal icon.svgWinner
2019Malaysia International Flag of Malaysia.svg Pearly Tan Flag of Indonesia.svg Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma
Flag of Indonesia.svg Ribka Sugiarto 		21–16, 11–21, 21–18Gold medal icon.svgWinner
2019 Sydney International Flag of Malaysia.svg Pearly Tan Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg Cheng Yu-chieh
Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg Tseng Yu-chi		17–21, 21–17, 13–21Silver medal icon.svgRunner-up
2019 India International Flag of Malaysia.svg Pearly Tan Flag of Malaysia.svg Teoh Mei Xing
Flag of Malaysia.svg Yap Ling 		21–18, 21–14Gold medal icon.svgWinner
2019 Bangladesh International Flag of Malaysia.svg Pearly Tan Flag of India.svg K. Maneesha
Flag of India.svg Rutaparna Panda 		22–20, 21–19Gold medal icon.svgWinner
  BWF International Challenge tournament
  BWF International Series tournament

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References

  1. ↑ Tan, Ming Wai (8 August 2022). "Pearly-Thinaah win, Malaysia surpass Commonwealth target". New Straits Times. Archived from the original on 9 August 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  2. ↑ Tan, Ming Wai (3 August 2022). "In smashing mood for four gold". New Straits Times. Archived from the original on 5 August 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  3. ↑ "Swiss Open: Pearly-Thinaah capture title". Badminton Association of Malaysia. 7 March 2021. Archived from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  4. ↑ Anil, Nicolas (30 October 2022). "French Open: Pearly-Thinaah create history after sensational final triumph". Stadium Astro. Archived from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  5. 1 2 Tan, Ming Wai (28 May 2023). "Pearly-Thinaah go down fighting in dramatic Malaysia Masters final". New Straits Times. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
  6. 1 2 Anil, Nicolas (17 September 2023). "Hong Kong Open: Pearly-Thinaah finish as runners-up". Stadium Astro. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  7. ↑ "BWF - BWF World Rankings - Overview". bwf.tournamentsoftware.com. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
  8. 1 2 "Pearly-Thinaah, Runners-up In Korea Open 2024". Bernama. 1 September 2023. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
  9. ↑ "Thinaah harap Deepavali bawa tuah". Stadium Astro (in Malay). 18 October 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  10. ↑ Intan Maizura Ahmad Kamal (29 November 2020). "Former shuttler gets into the Asia Book of Records for the longest love poem!". New Straits Times. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  11. ↑ Peter, Fabian (7 May 2020). "Rising badminton stars good in 4 languages". New Straits Times. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
  12. ↑ Anil, Nicolas (5 June 2021). "Thinaah credits partnership success with Pearly to multilingual skill". Stadium Astro. Retrieved 21 May 2022.
  13. 1 2 JAAYNE JEEVITA (27 October 2024). "Thinaah serves up success". The Star. Retrieved 29 October 2024.
  14. ↑ Bernama (4 June 2023). "Karate-do exponent Sharmendran, Thinaah crowned Selangor Sportsman, Sportswoman 2021-2022". Malay Mail. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  15. ↑ Bernama (18 July 2023). "ASN 2022: Aaron-Wooi Yik, Joe Ee crowned national sportsman and sportswoman". The Sun Daily. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  16. ↑ Thinaah Muralitharan (28 October 2023). "நேற்று நடந்த நம்பிக்கை நட்சத்திரம் 2023 விருது (Star Icon Awards 2023) விழாவிற்கு என்னை அழைத்தமைக்கு மிக்க நன்றி. சிறந்த விளையாட்டாளர் விருதிற்கும் மனமார்ந்த நன்றிகள். வரும் காலங்களில் இத்துறையில் சிறப்பாகச் செயல்பட முயற்சிக்கிறேன். நன்றி. ❤️" (in Tamil). Retrieved 29 October 2023.
  17. ↑ Wan Muthiah; Junaid Ibrahim (15 April 2024). "Leaving none on the sidelines" . Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  18. ↑ "Thinaah honoured to receive award from Selangor Sultan". The Star. 12 December 2023. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
  19. ↑ Tan, Ming Wai (8 August 2022). "Pearly-Thinaah win, Malaysia surpass Commonwealth target". New Straits Times. Archived from the original on 9 August 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  20. ↑ Alleyne, Gayle (19 March 2017). "BWF Launches New Events Structure". Badminton World Federation. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  21. ↑ Sukumar, Dev (10 January 2018). "Action-Packed Season Ahead!". Badminton World Federation. Archived from the original on 13 January 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  22. ↑ "Swiss Open: Pearly-Thinaah capture title". Badminton Association of Malaysia. 7 March 2021. Archived from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  23. ↑ Anil, Nicolas (30 October 2022). "French Open: Pearly-Thinaah create history after sensational final triumph". Stadium Astro. Archived from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  24. ↑ Salim, Faizal (15 September 2024). "Malaysia Day inspires Pearly-Thinaah to Hong Kong Open victory". New Straits Times. Retrieved 15 September 2024.
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