Ito, who triumphed in the WTT Contender tournament at the Lusail Multipurpose Hall on March 6, was back in action three days later at the same venue in the latest tournament to be held in the WTT Middle East hub.

She made short work of her opponent Manika Batra of India triumphing 11-7, 11-6, 11-7.

The losing finalist in the WTT Contender tournament, fellow Japanese player Hina Hayata also made a winning return to the circuit, defeating Nayeong Kim of South Korea 11-9, 11-6, 4-11, 11-8.

World number eight Cheng-I-Ching was also victorious in straight games beating Hana Matelova of the Czech Republic 11-9, 11-5, 14-12.

The other player in the world’s top ten in women’s singles action was Kasumi Ishikawa of Japan, with the ninth ranked player recovering from dropping the first game to win 2-11, 11-5, 13-11, 11-2 against Nina Mittelham of Germany.

In the men’s singles draw, the winner of last week’s WTT Contender tournament Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany also made a winning start to the latest event in the WTT Middle East hub, as he beat Egypt’s Ahmed Saleh 11-8, 11-5, 11-2.

World ranked number five Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan, the highest ranked player in attendance with China not sending any players to the WTT Middle East hub because of the coronavirus pandemic, was also victorious in his first match as he beat Sathiyan Gnanasekaran of India 11-4, 11-5, 11-8.

World number six Yun-Ju Lin of Taiwan was a winner in four games, as he came from behind to beat Joao Monteiro of Portugal 9-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-3.

World ranked number seven Hugo Calderano of Brazil was also a straight games victor, overcoming Daeseong Cho of South Korea 12-10, 11-9, 11-8.

The biggest upset of the day came when world number eight Mattias Falck of Sweden lost in straight games 11-8, 11-9, 11-7 to Jaehyun An of South Korea, the world number 38.