The 34-year-old third seed, the Olympic champion at Beijing 2008 and London 2012, was seeking a sixth home title at the Super Series event.

His campaign ended before it started, however, as he lost 21-19, 21-16 to Indonesia's Jonatan Christie at the Haixia Olympic Sports Center in Fuzhou.

Another Chinese star in Chen Long had no such trouble as the Rio 2016 Olympic gold medallist, seeded sixth, ousted Wong Wing Ki of Hong Kong 21-15, 21-16.

Denmark's top seed Viktor Axelsen, the reigning world champion, came through 21-17, 21-14 against Chinese qualifier Zhao Junpeng.

Axelsen could become the second Dane in a row to win the tournament after Jan Ø. Jørgensen, who is not in the draw this year, won in 2016.

South Korea's Son Wan-ho is also into round two but the second seed had to come from behind before knocking out China's Tian Houwei 19-21, 21-16, 21-18.

In the women's singles, top seed Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei recovered from a bad start to beat home player Chen Yufei 11-21, 21-18, 21-17.

Reigning world champion Nozomi Okuhara has withdrawn injured, however, after playing just a single point against China's Gao Fangjie.

Spanish Olympic champion Carolina Marin, the fourth seed, proved too strong for Minatsu Mitani of Japan, winning 21-4, 21-17.

Second round clashes will be played tomorrow.