Pi Hongyan, who is trying to become the first French player to win a world badminton title, began with a crushing win and an Olympic-sized reception from a Parisian crowd at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin on Wednesday.
The China-raised world No. 5 beat Elena Prus, the world No. 81 from the Ukraine, 21-8, 21-8 in front of 4,000 chanting, stamping spectators from her adopted home city.
There was rarely much doubt that Pi would win her opener, but there were questions about her levels of fitness and confidence after her recent knee and foot operations. Her early answers to them were encouraging. Pi knocked the shuttle around with conspicuous accuracy, while her movement, though not given a prolonged test in a match of only 29 minutes, was light, smooth and balanced.
PHOTO: REUTERS
She said there was a little discomfort in the knees, both of which were taped up, though her suffering was “not too great.”
However, it was the atmosphere that was the highlight. There was a large poster of Pi outside the stadium, accelerated hand-clapping when she began to get on top, and a mighty cheer when she earned her right to play South Korea’s 16th-seeded Kim Moon-hi in the last 16.
“It’s very nice to play here in France because every time the public makes a lot of noise and cheers me up,” Pi said. “Even though I was ahead, they always cheered me to play better and better. I liked it.”
Her performance was met with approval by her coach Fabrice Vallet.
“I wasn’t worrying about the result,” he said. “The most important thing was to be technically quite accurate — that when she aimed for the lines, she hit the lines. She did that and she can gain confidence from that.”
Pi may need to do that more, as doubts about her stamina may remain after her limited build-up to the world championships.
“I wanted to play some rallies,” Pi said. “I didn’t want it to be too easy, so after the first game I played these rallies, to prepare for a match which will be more difficult tomorrow.”
However, the pressure on her will mount, especially as all the other French players are out of the tournament, and the local focus becomes the more intense.
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