KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 —  Low Wee Wern beat Satomi Watanabe of Japan 11-8, 11-7, 11-4 to win her first ever Malaysian Open title in her first international tournament since 2016.

Wee Wern, 27, was out for 20 months due to multiple surgeries on her left knee and has seen her ranking drop from world No 5 before the injury to 254.

She needed to go through two qualifying rounds before beating eight seed Tong Tsz-Wing in the first round, second seed Liu Tsz-Ling in the quarterfinals before beating Malaysia’s No 2 and defending champion S. Sivasangari in the semifinals in straight sets. 

Sangari had beaten Wee Wern at the National Championships finals on July 8 in a titanic five set battle which incidentally was Wee Wern’s first tournament back since her injury.

Wee Wern pockets USD2346.50 (RM9533) in tournament winnings.