The Spanish player Carolina Marín exceeded this Tuesday without excessive problems her debut at the Badminton World Championship which is being played in Tokyo, beating the Canadian Wen Yu Zhang in two matches by 21-16 and 21-14.

The Huelva native, three-time world champion and fifth seed, returned to the track two months after a tour of Asia that didn’t go too well for her, but she showed her quality to get rid of her first rival in the Japanese capital, where there was also her return to a World Cup event four years after snagging her third gold medal as knee injuries prevented her from being both in 2019 in Basel (Switzerland) and last year in Huelva.

The current six-time European champion faced Yu Zhang for the first time and it took her a while to find her groove, so the tie remained on the scoreboard. Once installed, Marín began to dominate and with 8-8 added five consecutive points to open a good gap that seemed almost definitive (13-8).

However, the Canadian did not give up and knew how to react to recover her options from the first match. The score tightened again (15-14), but despite the resistance of the American, the native of Huelva made no more concessions and finished the quarter without being scared (21-16).

In the second game, there was less history because Carolina Marín came out very strong and took the first five points. Yu Zhang tried again to react, but this time the Spaniard gave him no respite and raised his level until he quickly finished (21-14) his pass for the round of 16 where he will face the Chinese He Bing Jiao, nine of the rankings and whom he has defeated in six of his seven duels, although they have not met since 2020.

“First victory in Tokyo, good feelings, but there is still a lot of things to improve in the game. I still have a day ahead of me to polish these small details and prepare well for Thursday’s game and give my all”, Marin said in a social media video.

On the other hand, in the doubles table, the only Spanish couple in the running, that formed by Carlos Piris and Joan Monroy, was clearly eliminated after falling in the first round against the Chinese duo of Taipei Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han by 21- 11 and 21-9.