KUALA LUMPUR: Former champions Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah battled through a testing first-round encounter to launch their French Open campaign on a winning note on Wednesday.
The world No. 2 were made to work hard before overcoming Taiwan’s world No. 18 Hsu Yin Hui-Lin Jhih Yun 21-16, 22-24, 21-12 to begin their bid to reclaim the title they last lifted in 2022.
Pearly-Thinaah missed out on title defence opportunity in 2023 through injury and suffered a shock first-round exit last year.
The victory was a timely lift for the duo, who had seen their remarkable run of consistency halted at last week’s Denmark Open, where they bowed out in the second round.
That defeat ended a superb sequence of 10 tournaments in which they had reached at least the quarter-final stage.
During that stretch, Pearly-Thinaah collected two titles — the Thailand Open and Arctic Open — finished runners-up on three occasions and made the semi-finals twice.
They will next face either China‘s Zhang Shu Xian-Bao Li Jing or Japan’s Nanako Hara-Riko Kiyose in the second round.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
