Olympic badminton champion Chen sails through first round at French Open

PARIS, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Men's Singles Olympic champion Chen Long of China secured his place in round of 16 after beating Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands 21-12, 21-17 at the BWF World Superseries French Open on Wednesday.

Chen came back to the tournament for the first time since 2011.

"Always a bit difficult in the first match. The opponent didn't get into the match quite well at the start, but he performed better in the second game, from the start until a 17-all," commented Chen.

After suffering a disappointing first-round exit last week at the Denmark Open, Chen expected better performance in the French capital in this week.

"I hoped to perform better this time, because I didn't come here to play for several years," Chen said.

"Every time when you lost a match, it's quite important for you to learn something from it," he added.

However, things were not working well for South Korean Son Wan Ho, as the second seed fell short at 21-16, 21-19 against Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus of Denmark.