KUALA LUMPUR: Women's doubles Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah's return to their best form in such a short period of time is indeed a positive sign for Malaysian badminton.
However, BA of Malaysia (BAM) high performance director Dr Tim Jones pointed out that the pair are still under a strict rehabilitation programme.
Malaysian badminton fans had their hearts in their mouth last month when Pearly was wheeled off the court after picking up a hamstring injury at the Super 750 Japan Open.
While the injury turned out to be not serious, the 22-year-old Kedah-born was still ruled out for six months.
Despite all that, Pearly-Thinaah made a successful comeback to top flight badminton this month.
On Friday, in their seventh attempt, the world No 11 finally ousted world No 3 Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida of Japan 15-21, 21-14, 21-14 to reach the semi-finals of the Super 750 French Open in Paris.
"It's great to see them back in quick time and for them to be performing well. But this is not the end of their rehabilitation journey," Jones told Timesport today.
"We will keep up with the rehabilitation training through the tournaments and monitor them.
"We need this pair fit and strong for potentially up and around 20 tournaments a year if this is needed for Olympic qualification. It will be an ongoing process in terms of injury prevention for not just Pearly-Thinaah but all our players.
It remains to be seen if Pearly-Thinaah will compete in the Hylo Open in Germany next month, but they most probably will as they are still chasing for ranking points to qualify for the season-ending World Tour Finals in Guangzhou on Dec 14-18.
Currently, the 2021 Swiss Open champions are ranked No 10 on the World Tour rankings and will need to break into the top-eight bracket to make the cut.
"If they can keep improving at the same rate and stay away from serious injury, they will be medal contenders in Paris 2024.
"Other nations will be analysing this pair more now, so they cannot afford to slow down their efforts. I believe we also have the coaches and staff to assist them to be capable of beating anyone on their day," Jones added.