Lee Zii Jia and Carolina Marin advance to round two at the 2022 Denmark Open
Rio 2016 Olympic champion Carolina Marin, 2021 badminton world champion Loh Kean Yew and Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia reached the second round in Odense.
Badminton
Carolina Marin started her Denmark Open 2022 campaign in style.
The Rio 2016 badminton Olympic champion defeated Mia Blichfeldt 21-18, 21-14 on Tuesday (18 October) to move into the second round of the women's singles in Odense.
The fourth-seeded Spaniard who was eliminated in the quarter-finals at this year's BWF World Championships, needed 50 minutes to dispatch the unseeded Dane and was always in control.
The three-time world champion will now face China's Han Yue.
Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia and Loh Kean Yew are also through to round two in the men's singles.
Number four seed Lee Zii Jia made quick work of France's Mark Caljouw winning 21-15, 21-10 in just 36 minutes to set up a meeting with Japan's Tsuneyama Kanta.
2021 world champion Loh beat Thailand's Sitthikom Thammasin after 42 minutes 21-13, 22-20.
Next up for him in Odense is India's Srikanth Kidambi who ousted Ka Long Angus Ng (Hong Kong) 17-21, 21-14, 21-12.
The 25-year-old Loh became Singapore's highest-ranked men's player ever when he managed to break into the top five of the world rankings for the first time two weeks ago.
Loh could not defend his first world title this year as he was eliminated in the quarter-finals.
Read more: How Loh Kean Yew learned from an Olympic champion.