Malaysia came close to a Merdeka Day double in Paris as Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah fell just short of creating history in the women’s doubles final at the BWF World Championships 2025.

The world No. 8 pair produced a brave display before narrowly losing 14-21, 22-20, 17-21 in an 83-minute thriller to China’s world No. 1 duo Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning at the Adidas Arena.

Their silver medal came only hours after Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei delivered Malaysia’s first-ever mixed doubles world title, ensuring this edition of the World Championships will be remembered as the nation’s best-ever performance with one gold and one silver.

It was Pearly-Thinaah’s third consecutive final against Liu-Tan after defeats in the Indonesia and Japan Opens, but the Paris showdown carried greater weight as it was staged on Malaysia’s 68th National Day.

Thinaah admitted the result was bittersweet.
*"Honestly, we are really happy to enter the final at the World Championships, but we are a bit disappointed we couldn't deliver the title. But we also have to give credit to the opponents who played very well, pressured us and were also calm.

Overall, it has been a good week here and we will definitely learn from this and be even better. I think we didn't want to give easy points to the opponents and we will always fight for every point as long as the shuttle doesn't hit the ground."*

Pearly revealed that a tactical shift made the difference in the second game.
"Yeah, she (Thinaah) did some flick serves which broke their rhythm and made them rush a bit while we remained calm. That strategy worked for us in the second game."

Despite the disappointment of missing out on the gold, Thinaah stressed that the campaign has strengthened their belief moving forward.
"This is the biggest tournament after the Olympics and this (result) helps to boost our confidence and motivates us to do even better in the future major events."

Although Malaysia were denied a Merdeka double on finals day, Pearly-Thinaah’s silver - alongside Chen-Toh’s historic gold - secured the nation’s finest-ever outing at the World Championships.