Thinaah Muralitharan

Malaysian badminton player Thinaah Muralitharan has closed the gap on the best women’s doubles players in the world with her partner Pearly Tan. The Malaysian duo soared to No 5 in the Women’s Doubles world rankings in 2023 after a string of impressive performances, and after claiming the gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth games in Birmingham with a storming 21-5, 21-8 victory over English pair Lauren Smith and Chloe Birch they are now building up to making their Olympic debut at the Paris Summer Olympic Games in 2024. The talented shuttlers already caused a stir back home in badminton-crazy Malaysia when they clinched their maiden World Tour title in Switzerland in 2021, a victory that shot both players into the limelight. They followed this feat by becoming the first ever Malaysian women’s doubles partnership to claim the French Open title.

Born in Klang, Malaysia, Muralitharan is of ethnic Indian decent and she can converse fluently in four languages: Malay, Tamil, English and Chinese Mandarin. Her proficiency to speak in Mandarin (the language her partner Tan is most proficient in) has helped build their world-beating partnership, and the talented duo have been able to find common ground and set targets for their Olympic debut whilst reflecting the unique and diverse multi-cultural society of Malaysia. Muralitharan knows she still has aspects of the game she can improve on, and along with Tan the dynamic duo have the ability to dominate their sport.