Lin Dan falters, China high flying in women's singles at BWF French Open

PARIS - Chinese veteran badminton star Lin Dan stopped his journey at the 2018 BWF French Open after losing the first round in full games here on Wednesday, while Chinese shuttlers rode high in women's singles with all five securing second round berths.

Lin let slide a 21-9 win in the first game before conceding the next two 21-14, 21-14 to Japanese Kazumasa Sakai.

"It was not about my fitness, but mentality," the 35-year-old Lin told Xinhua. "I conceded too many turnovers to earn my opponent points. In the first game, I heated up into the match quickly, while committing many unforced turnovers when I wanted to perform better in the next two games."

Lin failed to set up his second round clash with reigning world champion Kento Momota of Japan, who marched past Hsu Jen Hao of Chinese Taipei 21-19, 21-12.

Lin's teammate Chen Long powered past home favorite Brice Leverdez 21-11, 21-13.

Chen heated up quickly with an 11-3 lead at the changeover, before triumphing the first game after Leverdez suffered consecutive misjudgment.

The second game was displayed more fiercely at the start, when the Frenchman took on high-quality smashes for 4-all, but the reigning Olympic champion pulled away for an 11-8 lead at the changeover and never ceded his advantage later on.

"I didn't play the French Open as many times as other Opens, so I cherished every match here. I felt that I was quite concentrated today," said Chen.

Chen will next face Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark, who saw off another Chinese shuttler Huang Yuxiang 24-22, 21-17.

In the women's singles, China's trio of Chen Yufei, Gao Fangjie and Chen Xiaoxin all made a step forward.

Fourth-seeded Chen Yufei bounced back from one game down to shrug off Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand 20-22, 21-14, 21-8.

Gao Fangjie overcame Japanese Aya Ohori 23-21, 21-18, and Chen Xiaoxin stood firm to beat Russia's Evgeniya Kosetskaya 21-16, 16-21, 21-13.

The three joined He Bingjiao and Cai Yanyan, who had gone through on Tuesday, in the second round.

Other prominent names, including world No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, also secured their places in last 16.

Chinese pairs continued their strong performance in men's doubles after triumphing both duels against Danish rivals, meaning that all four pairs stayed in contention.

Liu Cheng and Zhang Nan, the tournament's third seeds, outclassed Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen 21-11, 21-15. He Jiting/Tan Qiang rallied past fifth-seeded Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, the China Open champions last month, 22-24, 21-18, 21-17 in 70 minutes.

It was totally different scenario for their women's counterparts. China's Huang Dongping and Huang Yaqiong unsurprisingly lost to top-ranked Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota of Japan 21-11, 21-12.

Du Yue and Li Yinhui withdrew due to Du's foot injury, handing their Indonesian opponents Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu a walkover.

Li Wenmei and Zheng Yu are the only Chinese pair remaining in the competition. Up next against them will be the Rio Olympics champions Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi from Japan.

In the mixed doubles, top seeds Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong of China breezed past Rohan Kapoor/Kuhoo Garg of India 21-5, 21-10 in just 24 minutes.

BWF French Open, the penultimate of five Super 750-level tournaments of the season, is underway in Stade Pierre de Coubertin located southwest of Paris until Sunday.