PARIS, Oct. 23 -- Chinese shuttlers fared differently in singles and doubles events on the first match day at the BWF French Open 2018, as three singles players made their way into the second round but half of its pairs crashed out from the tournament here on Tuesday.
Men's singles No. 2 seed Shi Yuqi shrugged off Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan 21-14, 21-16.
Shi, upset in the first round in last week's Denmark Open, told Xinhua, "Now I have made a step forward (going through the first round). I will do my best this week."
South Korean Son Wan Ho rallied past Indonesia's Tommy Sugiarto 16-21, 26-24, 22-20 in an 87-minute tussle, but fourth-seeded Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei and No. 8 seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia both faltered on the opening day.
Chinese women's shuttler He Bingjiao steadied her nerves in both games to overcome Fitriani Fitriani of Indonesia 21-17, 21-19.
He, finishing third at the Denmark Open, said, "I just arrived here yesterday, so I still could not play at a very good level and faced some challenges in my first match."
He was joined by teammate Cai Yanyan in the second round as the latter beat Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand 18-21, 23-21, 21-15.
Two Chinese pairs sailed through men's doubles first round. Second-seeded Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen got past Arjun M.R. and Ramchandran Shlok of India 21-14, 21-17. A younger duo of Han Chengkai and Zhou Haodong, who made into the China Open final last month, outscored Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan 21-10, 21-16.
Asian Games women's doubles gold medalists Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan trailed throughout the match before losing to Naoko Fukuman/Kurumi Yonao of Japan 21-18, 21-15.
"We didn't play well technically and tactically, and our opponents showed their resilience in the match," said Jia, whose smashing quality was somewhat hampered by wrist concern.
Li Wenmei and Zheng Yu made a bit redemption for China by edging Chloe Birch and Lauren Smith of England 23-21, 24-22.
Despite a 21-19 first game win over Japanese Takuro Hoki and Wakana Nagahara, the fifth-seeded Chinese mixed pair of Zhang Nan and Li Yinhui conceded the following two games 21-19, 21-14.
He Jiting and Du Yue were forced to retire at 1-1 in the decider against German pair of Marvin Emil Seidel and Linda Efler as Du could not hold on due to her foot injury sustained last week in Denmark.
Lu Kai/Chen Lu fell in front of Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand 21-16, 21-15.
Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping were the only Chinese pair through the mixed doubles first round, as No. 2 seeds breezed past Danes Niclas Nohr and Sara Thygesen 21-11, 21-8 in just 27 minutes.
BWF French Open, the penultimate of five Super 750-level tournaments of the season, will see winners of five events on Sunday.