Carolina Marin made a strong start to her Denmark Open 2022 campaign. On Tuesday (17 October), the Rio 2016 Olympic badminton winner beat Mia Blichfeldt 21-18, 21-14 to advance to the second stage of the women's singles in Odense.
The unseeded Dane was dispatched in 50 minutes by the fourth-seeded Spaniard, who was eliminated in the quarter-finals of this year's BWF World Championships.
The three-time world title will now face Han Yue of China. Malaysians Lee Zii Jia and Loh Kean Yew have also advanced to the second round of the men's singles.
Denmark Open: Lee Zii Jia, Marin advance to round 2
The fourth seed Lee Zii Jia defeated France's Mark Caljouw 21-15, 21-10 in 36 minutes to schedule a match with Japan's Tsuneyama Kanta. After 42 minutes, Loh defeated Thailand's Sitthikom Thammasin 21-13, 22-20.
In Odense, he will face India's Srikanth Kidambi, who defeated Hong Kong's Ka Long Angus Ng 17-0.
Loh, 25, became Singapore's highest-ranked men's player when he broke into the top 5 of the global rankings for the first time two weeks back.
Loh was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the World Championship 2022 and was unable to protect his first world title this year.