SINGAPORE, Aug 22: Top seeds Camilla Martin and Zhou Mi strolled through the first round of the women’s singles at the Singapore Open badminton tournament Thursday, with seventh-seed Kim Kyeung-Ran the only headline player to fall by the wayside.

Judith Meulendijks of the Netherlands scored a surprise 11-5, 5-11, 13-12 win over the Korean ace in the $170,000 tournament at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

In a topsy-turvy match, the Dutchwoman waltzed through the opening game before the Korean settled down.

Once she found her rhythm, Kim started dictating terms and levelled the match with ease.

The deciding game proved to be a cliff-hanger as the better reach of Meulendijks held her in good stead as she made some impossible looking retrievals and made sure she never fell too far behind.

When it came to the crunch, Kim netted an easy return to give the Meulendijks an upset win and a place in the second round.

Top seed Martin from Denmark, the current All England champion and looking for her first title here, had few problems against Hong Kong’s Koon Wai Chee Louise, winning 11-2, 11-7.

She next plays world number 13 Xie Xingfang, who defeated Singapore’s recently crowned Commonwealth Games champion Li Li who admitted to having trouble regrouping for her home event.

Second seed Zhou also had an easy win, beating Germany’s Katja Michalowsky 11-3, 11-0.

Zhou’s Chinese teammate and defending champion Zhang Ning, who beat Martin here last year, was equally comfortable in winning her first match 11-1, 11-2 against Singapore’s Xiao Luxi.

Thursday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Women’s singles:

First round: 1-Camilla Martin (Denmark) beat Koo Wai Chee Lousia (Hong Kong) 11-2, 11-7; Xie Xinfang (China) beat Li Li (Singapore) 11-3, 11-5; 6-Dai Yun (China) beat Kerina de Wit (Netherlands) 11-1, 11-1; Agnesse Allegrini (Italy) Juliane Schenk (Germany) 13-10, 11-8; 4-Zhang Ning (China) beat Xiao Luxi (Singapore) 11-1, 11-2; Yuli Marfuah (Indonesia) beat Lili Fan (Singapore) 11-9, 11-8; Judith Meulendijks (Netherlands) beat 7-Kim Kyeubg Ran (South Korea) 11-5, 5-11, 13-12; Hu Ting (China) beat Meainee Mangalarkiri (US) 11-1, 11-0; Jun Jee Youn (South Korea) beat Petra Overzier (Germany) 9-11, 11-8, 11-5; 8-Gong Ruina (China) beat Atu Rosalina (Indonesia) 11-7, 1-0 — retd; Kaori Mori (Japan) beat Anu Weckstrom (Finland) 11-2, 11-1; 3-Wang Chen (Hong Kong) beat Huang Chia-Chi (Taiwan) 11-2, 11-3; Cheng Shao-Chien (Taiwan) beat Wu Elle (US) 11-7, 11-1; 5-Mia Audina Tjiptawan (Netherlands) beat Ellen Angelina (Indonesia) 11-8, 11-1; Sujitra Ekmongkolpaisarn (Thailand) beat Dian Novita Sari (Indonesia) 11-8, 11-3; 2-Zhou Mi (China) beat Katja Michalowsky (Germany) 11-3, 11-0.—AFP