Thinaah Muralitharan

Thinaah Muralitharan (born 3 January 1998) is a Malaysian badminton player. She and her partner Pearly Tan won the women's doubles silver medals at the 2025 World Championships and reached the women's doubles semi-finals at the 2024 Summer Olympics. They also won gold medals in both the women's doubles and the mixed team events at the 2022 Commonwealth Games as well as in the women's doubles event at the 2025 SEA Games. They became the first ever Malaysian World Championship medalists and Olympic semi-finalists in the women's doubles event. Their results at the World Championships and the Olympic Games made them the most successful Malaysian badminton women's doubles pair in the history.

Career In 2021, Thinaah and Tan clinched their first BWF World Tour title at the Swiss Open.

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

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

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. 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.

In 2025, Thinaah enjoyed a breakthrough season alongside her women's doubles partner Pearly Tan, achieving historic and consistent success on the world stage. The duo became the first Malaysia women's doubles to reach the final of the BWF World Championships, capturing the silver medal. They also secured multiple BWF World Tour title, including victories at the Thailand Open, Arctic Open, and Japan Masters. Their strong performances led them to occupy the BWF ranking of number 2 in July 2025, and qualified for the Tour Finals in Hangzhou and reached the semi-final. Thinaah and Tan also ended Malaysia's long wait for women's doubles gold at the SEA Games.

The next year, Thinaah and Tan won their first title in the Indonesia Masters by January.

Personal life Thinaah is the second child of S. Muralitharan and Parimala Devi Kalalingam. She has an older brother and a younger sister, Selinaah Muralitharan, who is a former Selangor state shuttler. 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. 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.

Awards + Year Award Category Result

Selangor Sports Awards 2021-2022 Selangor Sportswoman National Sports Awards National women's team (with Pearly Tan)

Nambikkai Star Icon Awards Best Sports Personality

Dr. Ambedkar International Award Open University Malaysia 28th Convocation Sports Icon Selangor Bintang Kecemerlangan Sukan Selangor (BKS) (2023).

Achievements World Championships Women's doubles Year Venue Partner Opponent Score Result Ref

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.

Women's doubles Year Tournament Level Partner Opponent Score Result Ref 2021 Swiss Open Super 300 Pearly Tan Gabriela Stoeva Stefani Stoeva 21–19, 21–12 Winner 2022 French Open Super 750 Pearly Tan Mayu Matsumoto Wakana Nagahara 21–19, 18–21, 21–15 Winner 2023 Malaysia Masters Super 500 Pearly Tan Baek Ha-na Lee So-hee 20–22, 21–8, 17–21 Runner-up 2024 Arctic Open Super 500 Pearly Tan Liu Shengshu Tan Ning 12–21, 17–21 Runner-up 2025 Indonesia Masters Super 500 Pearly Tan Kim Hye-jeong Kong Hee-yong 12–21, 21–17, 18–21 Runner-up 2025 Thailand Open Super 500 Pearly Tan Jeong Na-eun Lee Yeon-woo 21–16, 21–17 Winner 2025 Japan Open Super 750 Pearly Tan Liu Shengshu Tan Ning 15–21, 14–21 Runner-up 2025 Arctic Open Super 500 Pearly Tan Rin Iwanaga Kie Nakanishi 21–7, 21–9 Winner

BWF International Challenge/Series (5 titles, 2 runners-up) Women's singles Year Tournament Opponent Score Result 2018 Iran Fajr International Lee Ying Ying 11–8, 11–6, 9–11, 11–9 Winner 2018 Dutch International Julie Dawall Jakobsen 21–17, 15–21, 11–21 Runner-up

Women's doubles Year Tournament Partner Opponent Score Result 2018 Malaysia International Payee Lim Peiy Yee Cheng Yu-chieh Chung Kan-yu 21–17, 21–14 Winner 2019 Malaysia International Pearly Tan Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma Ribka Sugiarto 21–16, 11–21, 21–18 Winner 2019 Sydney International Pearly Tan Cheng Yu-chieh Tseng Yu-chi 17–21, 21–17, 13–21 Runner-up 2019 India International Pearly Tan Teoh Mei Xing Yap Ling 21–18, 21–14 Winner 2019 Bangladesh International Pearly Tan K. Maneesha Rutaparna Panda 22–20, 21–19 Winner BWF International Challenge tournament BWF International Series tournament