KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's top women's doubles players Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah made a winning comeback at the Kumamoto Masters today.
The former French Open champions, who are making a return after a prolonged layoff due to Pearly's back injury, saw off South Korea's Lee Yu Lim-Shin Seung Chan 21-14, 20-22, 21-18 in the first round.
Pearly-Thinaah who last competed in the quarter-finals of the Hangzhou Asian Games, will play the winners of the match between Japan's Rui Hirokami-Yuna Kato and the United States' Francesca Corbett-Alisson Lee tomorrow.
"From what I see, Pearly-Thinaah are still a little hesitant, but that's understandable because this is their first tournament after a while.
"They managed to overcome this and still won the match. I'm happy with that.
"My advice is take things one match at a time. Of course there is still room for improvement but one match at a time," said national women's doubles coach Hoon Thien How.
Pearly-Thinaah, who have reached a career high world No. 5 early this year, have dropped out of the world top 10 having had to miss a number of tournaments.
Another national duo, Anna Cheong-Teoh Mei Xing, will play in the first round today against qualifiers Sayaka Hobara-Yui Suizu from Japan.