Four years back, Zhang Ning had a very tough first round match against the Swedish player Andrievskaya. In 2008, facing the tiny Thai player Salakjit Ponsana, she followed the tradition and embarked on a tremendous battle. Her compatriots Zhang Jiewen and Yang Wei, on the other hand, had a rather smooth first round match against Indonesians Natsir and Marissa.

The women's singles Olympic Champion, Zhang Ning, was the first Chinese player to enter the courts at the impressive Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium. However, the experienced player didn't come onto the court with confidence as she appeared very nervous throughout the whole first game.

Still, the tall Chinese player led the game with her efficient attacking play, taking advantange of Salakjit's height deficit. But the Thai player didn't give up and followed close behind her in the score. At 11-10 at the break for Zhang Ning, Salakjit gathered all her power to give the Chinese player a hard battle.

Ponsana took the lead and made the Chinese favourite very nervous, pushing ahead to 13-11 and later 17-14. Salakjit remained very focused until the end of the game and she showed the Chinese veteran the four corners of the court, alternating drop shots and clear shots,  and not allowing Zhang Ning to play her attacking game.

But Zhang Ning kept  the score close, even as her opponent of the day looked fiercer than ever. Zhang Ning's face showed how tensed she was, but after taking back the lead and threatening to close at 19-17, she resumed her erratic play from earlier, even missing two game points, and Salakjit took the first game 23-21 with her one and only game point.

In the second game, Zhang Ning was determined to level the score and Salakjit  couldn't cope with her opponent's great play. The Chinese let 14-6, but saw the Thai coming back after she slowed down the game. Still Zhang won 21-17, giving the Chinese crowd a reason to scream for their idol. In the third, the Thai was absolutely no match for the Olympic champion, on a quest for a second title.  Zhang totally dominated the last game, erasing the Thai's hope of what would have been maybe the biggest upset.

Today was also the first round match for the defending Olympic women's doubles champions Zhang Jiewen and Yang Wei, who where set to meet the dangerous pair from Indonesia, Vita Marissa and Lilyana Natsir.

Zhang and Yang started to make a lot of errors at the beginning of the match and the Indonesian pair quickly took a 10-4 lead but it didn't last too long as theChinese ladies levelled up at 10-10 thanks to Zhang Jiewen's lethal attacks. The pairs engaged in some very long rallies, but the Chinese and their roaring red crowd behind them eventually won the first game 21-19, even though Natsir and Marissa had led throughout most of the game.

The Chinese started to dominate the second game, giving no chance to Lilyana Natsir and Vita Marissa.  Towards the end of the game, the Indonesian players appeared to be playing for the fun of the occassion, perhaps because this would not be their last chance to win an Olympic medal, as they are both still capable of better achievements in mixed doubles.

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