The pair entered the men's doubles competition having just won the Barcelona Spain Masters.

They beat Russia's Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov 22-20, 21-16 to progress to the next round at the SK Handball Stadium in Seoul.

Lee has won the Korea Open in either the men's doubles or mixed doubles in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2016.

"We haven't played here in a couple of years and we were a little nervous at first but it was only our first match and we managed to get it together and win it in the end so I think we can prepare well for our next match and I am not too worried about the troubles we had today," said Lee.

"We had a good tournament at the Spain Masters too but this is very different because the event is being played in our country, at home, and there are lots of our compatriots who have come to cheer for us.

"We were actually surprised by how many there were out to see the first round.

"We thought, 'well, we can't lose this one.'"

Tomorrow they take on the top seeds Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda of Japan, who were victorious against last week's China Open runners-up Han Chengkai and Zhou Haodong of China, 21-15, 21-14.

China Open champions Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark surprisingly crashed out of the competition, losing to Chinese Taipei's Lee Jhe-Huei and Lee Yang 12-21, 21-14, 21-11.

The men's singles defending champion, Anthony Ginting of Indonesia, got past Lucas Corvee of France to progress 21-18, 21-10.

In the women’s singles, the former Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China was defeated by compatriot Gao Fangjie 21-18, 21-23, 21-8.

Among other first round winners in the women's event were India's Saina Nehwal, South Korea's Sung Ji Hyun and Scotland's Kirsty Gilmour.

The competition is part of the BWF World Tour and action will continue tomorrow.