The ruling women's singles world No. 1 Carolina Marin kicked off her BWF Sunrise Hong Kong Open with a strong start after crushing Busanan Ongbamrung of Thailand with a straight-set victory on Wednesday night at the Hong Kong Coliseum in Kowloon.

Marin, who finishes the recently concluded China Open as a quarterfinalist, entered the USD 400,000 World Superseries badminton tournament as the top seeded player of the event. The reigning Summer Olympic Games champion scored an easy 21-8, 21-14 first round victory over the Thai shuttler.

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According to the match result in the official website of the BWF, it only took 31 minutes before the Spanish tennis star convincingly wrapped up the victory. Marin claimed her fifth consecutive win over the 13th ranked 20-year-old native of Bangkok since they initially played against each other in the Djarum Indonesia Open in 2013.

With her latest triumph, the two-time World Championships winner moved a step forward in defending the title that she won last year. Marin claimed the previous edition of the Kowloon-based badminton event after beating Nozomi  Okuhara of Japan in three sets.

The 23-year-old Spanish shuttler will be facing home crowd favorite Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong.  The 28-year-old Chinese player defeated Line Kjaersfeldt of Denmark in two sets that only lasted for 36 minutes.

Yip, who was the 2010 Malaysia Open Grand Prix champion, currently ranks No. 33 in the world and entered the tourney as an unseeded player.

The upcoming second round duel of the two top world class badminton player will be their third official meetings. Basing from the head-to-head analysis, Marin enjoys the upper hand with a perfect 2-0 win-loss record.

Marin, who is yet to win a World Superseries trophy this year, defeated Yip in the tournament of Djarum Indonesia Open on Jun 2012 and got the better of the Hong Kong national in the Celcom Axiata Malaysia Open in April of this year.

TagsCarolina Marin, badminton, sunrise hong kong open, bwf rankings, BWF World Superseries