Jakarta: Chinese shuttlers got off to a solid start at the BCA Indonesia Open on Tuesday.
World No. 4 women’s singles shuttler Wang Yihan of China was in excellent form as she eased past Michelle Li of Canada in straight-sets 21-19, 21-18 in 46 minutes. Wang will play Line Kjaersfeldt of Denmark in the second round.
Sixth seeded Wang Shixian, however was forced to come through a tough opener before beating South Korean Bae Yeon Ju 21-12, 15-21 and 21-12 in 68 minutes.
The 2012 Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China also showed her resilient effort against local shuttler Ruselli Hartawan, fought back from one set down to beat the Indonesian 16-21, 21-8, 21-11.
Nevertheless, women’s singles No. 2 seed Ratchanok Intanon was upset in her opening match in Jakarta when she went down to Sun Yu of China 15-21, 18-21. This was Sun’s second victory against the former World Champion in their seventh encounter.
China also had 3 mixed doubles pairs advanced to the second round. Top seeds Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei waltzed to an opening victory over Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying of Malaysia with 21-18, 21-17 in 45 minutes.
No. 6 seeds Liu Chen/Bao Yixin also managed to brush aside South Korean Lee Yong Dae/Le So He 21-19, 21-19 in the first round of mixed doubles event.
Unseeded Lu Kai/Huang Yaqiong of China opened up their campaigns with a stellar performance to stun Indonesia’s No. 8 seeds Praveen Jordan/Debby Susanto 21-15, 21-10 in just 33 minutes.
“This would not affect us much. Instead, it was a good lesson for us to learn from before the Rio Olympics. We should learn how not to let pressure get to us,” said Jordan.
