Odense: The men’s singles No. 2 seed, Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan beat Denmark’s 25-year-old Victor Svendsen 21-16, 21-11 in a Denmark Open first-round match at the Odense Sports Park on Wednesday.
The second-seeded Chou, was trailing 6-9 in the first set, before reeling off 5 consecutive points to take the lead at 11-8 and won the first set. Despite not playing in an international tournament since the 2020 All England final, where he lost to Viktor Axelsen, Chou didn’t seem bothered by overcoming a slow start to eventually took the match in 46 minutes.
Chou will face Nhat Nguyen of Ireland on Thursday.
Japanese player Kenta Nishimoto also advanced to face Brice Leverdez of France in the second round.
In women’s competition, Japan’s 2017 World Champion Nozomi Okuhara was relatively untroubled by Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland, coming from 12-15 down in the second set to win 21-7, 21-19 in 39 minutes.
Okuhara was also the only female player from an Asia country to compete at the Denmark Open. She will next meet Jordan Hart of Wales.
Meanwhile, Canada’s women’s singles No. 4 seed and the 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medalist Michelle Li defeated Amalie Schulz of Denmark 21-18, 21-13 to set up a second-round battle with Fabienne Deprez of Germany.
