The draw for the knock-out stage was held after the completion of group fixtures at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena on Tuesday night in Paris.

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, So Yeong-Hee Yong clinched bronze after beating compatriots Lee So Hee-Shin Seung Chan in the third-place playoff.

In their only previous meeting against Pearly-Thinaah at the 2021 World Tour Finals group stage, the Koreans triumphed with a 14-21 14-21 victory.

If Pearly-Thinaah clear the quarterfinals against the world No 10, the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Champions would likely face another acid test against China’s four-time world champions Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan, after going down 17-21, 20-22 to the latter in the Group A match on Saturday.

On paper, the Chinese pair should easily eliminate Gabriela Stoeva-Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria to make it to the semifinals.

After losing to Qing Chen-Yi Fan, the world No 13 Pearly-Thinaah stunned Japan’s two-time world champions Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara the next day and world No 9 pair Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti to qualify for the quarterfinals as group runners-up.

In the other half of the bracket, world No 2 Baek Ha Na-Lee So Hae of South Korea will challenge China’s Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning, while Japan’s Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida will face Denmark’s Maiken Fruergaard-Sara Thygesen.