Both Lin and Lee, who lost to the Chinese player in the final at London 2012, were forced to pull out ahead of the tournament at the Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre due to injury.

Chen, the reigning world champion, appeared keen to take advantage of the misfortune of his rivals as he wasted little time in dispatching Australian qualifier Huaidong Tang, dropping just seven points on his way to a resounding 21-3, 21-4 victory.

The Chinese star, who won the Australian Open event in 2015, will take on Zulfadli Zulkiffli of Malaysia in the next round.

Elsewhere, it proved to be a difficult day for the seeded players in the men’s draw as seventh seed Chou Tien-Chen of Chinese Taipei suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Anthony Ginting of Indonesia, who progressed by virtue of a 21-8, 21-12 triumph.

Chou’s loss had come after sixth seed Tian Houwei of China also exited the tournament at the first stage as he was beaten by Sony Kuncoro, also of Indonesia, 21-16, 21-12.

There were no such troubles in the women’s event for Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon as the second seed and 2013 world champion overcame Japan’s Minatsu Mitani 21-13, 21-16.

Intanon was joined in the second round of the BWF Superseries event in Australia by third seed and reigning Olympic gold medallist Li Xuerui of China, who swept aside home favourite Jennifer Tam 21-12, 21-5.

Wang Yihan of China, seeded fourth, is also through as she proved too strong for Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour, emerging with a 21-16, 21-10 win.

The highest profile casualty in the women’s tournament was fifth seed Nozomi Okuhara of Japan as the former world junior champion lost to China’s Sun Yu.

The unseeded Chinese player dumped the Japanese out of the competition by coming from behind to claim a 21-23, 21-17, 21-19 success.

The action in Sydney continues tomorrow.