The 25-year-old beat Bulgaria’s Linda Zetchiri 16-21, 21-17, 21-16 at the Emirates Arena, where she was crowned Commonwealth champion three years ago.

The result was a reverse of their last encounter at the 2013 World Championships in Chinese city Guangzhou.

Li now goes onto face 14th seed Chen Xiaoxin of China, who received a bye through to the second round.

She is hoping to use the memories of winning at the Emirates Arena to motivate her.

"Obviously it feels great," Li said.

"I hope I can have the same performance this year, but the opponents are different.

"Everything is different, but I feel the nostalgia and I feel the motivation to do better here."

Joining Li in the second round is compatriot Rachel Honderich after she overcame the United States’ Iris Wang 21-13, 21-18.

Next up for her is seventh seed Nozomi Okuhara of Japan.

Among the other women’s singles winners today were Switzerland’s Sabrina Jaquet, a 21-14, 18-21, 21-10 victor at the expense of Ukraine’s Natalya Voytsekh, and Germany’s Luise Heim, who defeated England’s Fontaine Chapman 17-21, 21-13, 21-9.

Russia’s Evgeniya Kosetskaya also progressed with a 21-19, 21-16 victory over France’s Delphine Lansac.

In the men’s singles competition, top seed Son Wan Ho of South Korea was made to work hard in his 21-14, 21-16 win over Finland’s Kalle Koljonen.

Eighth seed Srikanth Kidambi of India was more comfortable in beating Russia’s Sergey Sirant 21-13, 21-12.

Kidambi won his two most recent tournaments, coming out on top at the Australian Open and Indonesia Open in June.

"The first round is always tough in such a big tournament," he said.

"It’s been two months since I last played an event.

"Overall, I’m happy with the way it went.

"I know there are a lot of expectations after my wins in Indonesia and Australia, but I’m not really following the news and I’m only focused on the next match."

Action in Glasgow is due to continue tomorrow.