Danish third seed Peter Gade started with an easy win but Chinese 11th seed Bao Chunlai was upstaged in the first round of the world badminton championships which began under tight security on Monday.
Malaysian world number one Lee Chong Wei and Chinese Olympic champion Lin Dan, chasing a record hattrick of titles, were due to open their campaign later on the opening day.
Former All-England champion Gade displayed power and precision to dispatch unseeded Valeriy Atrashchenkov of Ukraine 21-11, 21-16 in 29 minutes.
Unseeded Dutchman Dicky Palyama caused the first upset on an adjacent court, edging Bao 21-18, 21-14 in just over 30 minutes.
England pulled out of the championships on Sunday citing a "specific terrorist threat", following media reports of a threat to the event by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The militant group has been blamed for the raid on Mumbai in November in which 166 people were killed.
