MS - Sixteenth - The favorites kept their heads up.

What an entrance for the 3 times European champion Viktor AXELSEN arrived in France straight from Odense with high ambitions. He has a winning record astounding since 2019. He faced a stronger opponent last week and his adventure in front of his home crowd finished at semifinals.  

As he said in press conference last week, the Dane is ready to perform in Paris. A tournament where he never really performed well. Today, he stepped a foot on court with the entire crowd behind him. His opponent Kenta NISHIMOTO (n°21, Japan) couldn’t do anything against the Dane power. 21/11 21/20. 

"I had a good attacking game at the beginning of the match. It was working well. I slowed down a bit too much in the second game while NISHIMOTO raised his level of play. Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with my game. It's the first round, you can't expect everything to be perfect already at this stage of the tournament." 

"I was in the final here already 10 years ago, it's amazing. I've never really been able to perform in Paris. I hope I can do it in this edition. I want to thank the French public. I'm already looking forward to getting back on the court on Thursday!" 

The title holder from Japan Kanta TSUNEYAMA could have taken the exit door early this today. He faced the young Indonesian Chico Aura Dwi WARDOYO (n°25). Both players gave an amazing performance on court. The entire score stay pretty close until the end, it could have gone both ways. The Japanese experience has talked to be patient enough during the key moments of the match. On the other side, the Indonesian youth couldn’t help him to make few forced errors. The Japanese secured his spot into the second round after a long battle. 19/21 21/19 21/18. 

The Dane Hans-Kristian Solberg VITTINGHUS (n°19) arrived on court facing the same opponent as last week first round in Odense. Indeed, the Dane lost against Jonatan CHRISTIE at Denmark Open. Today was an opportunity for him to take his revenge! Unfortunately, it was not enough. The Indonesian show a strong performance and managed to win the match in straight games (21/19 21/14) 

About Kodai NARAKOA (n°20), the Japanese won his ticket for the second round after defeating the Canadian YANG 21/15 21/18. Both players gave the audience long rallies for about 45 minutes. It seems that the Denmark Open semifinalist has high expectations for this week. Indeed, he lost a big battle against Shi Yu Qi last Sunday. Will he make it to the finals this time? The World Number 20 will be back on Thursday for another fight in front of an amazing crowd.  

NG Ka Long ANGUS (n°13, Hong Kong) won on the wire (24/22 21/18) against Zhao Jun PENG (n°18, China). LOH Kean Yew (n°5, Singapore), the only man this season to have defeated AXELSEN, had no difficulty in eliminating Mark CALJOUW (n°26, Netherlands).   

Tomorrow's program in the men's singles draw includes the end of the first round with the entry of top seeds such as CHOU Tien Chen (No. 4, Taiwan) and LEE Zi JIA (No. 3, Malaysia). Toma Junior POPOV (n°23, France) will carry the only French hopes of this draw on his shoulders, in a match where he will not be favorite against Wang Tzu WEI (n°17, Taiwan).