KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's women's pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah put their Paris Olympics campaign back on track by pulling off a sensational win over Japan's two-time world champions Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara today.
Pearly-Thinaah outlasted the world No. 6 Japanese 18-21, 21-15, 21-16 in 73 minutes to mark their first victory in the highly-competitive Group A which also has China's world No. 1 Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan and Indonesia's Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti.
It was a superb response from the world No. 13 Malaysian duo after having lost to top seeds Qing Chen-Yi Fan in their opening match yesterday.
A second defeat would have ended their hopes of advancing to the knockout stage.
Pearly-Thinaah's final group fixture against Apriyani-Siti is scheduled for Tuesday.
More to come.