Paris: After suffering his seventh first round defeats at Denmark Open last week, two-time Olympic gold medalist Lin Dan of China snapped his first round losing record temporarily by outlasting Brice Leverdez of France 21-12, 21-9 in the opener of French Open on Tuesday.
Lin will face the winner between Chen Long and Rasmus Gemke in the second round on Thursday.
In another men’s singles first round math, Malaysia’s World No. 14 Lee Zii Jia was no match for World No. 8 Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting as he went down to Ginting 16-21, 8-21 in the first round.
Ginting will play Huang Yu Xiang of China of China next. Huang Yu Xiang entered the second round after winning a 21-10, 19-21, 21-12 first round match against Khosit Phetpradab of Thailand.
In mixed doubles, unseeded Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing of Malaysia pulled off an upset to defeat compatriots and No. 5 sees Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying 19-21, 21-16, 21-13 to set up second round encounter with Rinov Rivaldy/Pitha Haningtyas Mentari of Indonesia.
The women’s singles competition saw India’s PV Sindhu defeated Michelle Li of Canada in straight games with 21-15, 21-13. Sindhu will take on Yeo Jia Min of Singapore next. Yeo won against Soniia Cheah of Malaysia 21-15, 21-16 on Tuesday.
Thailand’s Ratchanok was forced to dig deep to overcome Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland 19-21, 21-17, 21-9. Intanon will meet Evgeniya Kosetskaya of Russia in the women’s singles second round.
