Day 1 at the LI-NING China Masters 2025 has commenced and it has been with some surprising results for Europeans. Good and bad. 

Mixed doubles with mixed result
In mixed doubles, it was Thom Gicquel/Delphine Delrue who started out the day for the Europeans. Unfortunately for the pair, who were sixth seeded at the event, they fell to Thai pair Ruttanapak Oupthong/Jhenicha Sudjaipraparat in a match of 3 games. 
 
Luckily, they where not the only mixed pair playing as Mads Vestergaard/Christine Busch also went on to court. They were able to get an important win against Canadian pair Kevin Lee/Eliana Zhang in straight games, keeping European hopes alive in the mixed category. 

Women's singles
In women’s singles, three Danish players hit the court today. Julie Dawall Jakobsen faced P. V. Sindhu, but was never able to challenge the former World Champion, unfortunately losing 21-5 21-10.

Mia Blichfeldt and Line Kjærsfeldt played each other in the first round, sharing the court for the first time since HYLO Open 2022, then it was Kjærsfeldt who won in three games. Today, it was also a three game match, where all of the games played out quite equally with the final result being 21-9 10-21 21-9, this time with Mia Blichfeldt being victorious. 

Men's singles victories
The biggest surprise of the day was Nhat Nguyen defeating former World Champion Loh Kean Yew, in straight games. It is the first time the Irishman has been able to defeat Yew, their two previous encounters going the way of the Singaporean. Defeating a seeded player like Yew also means an easier opponent for Nguyen in the next round. Here either Chinese Taipei's Chi Yu Jen or Yushi Tanaka awaits him, both of them only a couple of spots above him in the world ranking, a big difference to that of Loh Kean Yew. This means that a chance for a longer run in a Super 750 is within grasp for Nguyen, which is a crucial step in moving up the world rankings and securring seeded positions at the World Tour. It will be exciting to follow if he can utilize this victory for further success in the tournament. 
 
Lastly, Christo Popov played Chinese Taipei player Tzu Wei. It was their second meeting, their last encounter was at the China Open 2024, here it was Wei who defeated Popov in a three-game match. But this time it was in-form Popov was able to beat Wei in straight games 21-14 21-17 continuing his momentum from Hong Kong last week where he secured a bronze medal.
 
To watch all of today’s results click here.  
 
To see tomorrows order of play, where more European players await, click here.