As the reigning world and Olympic champion, Axelsen is the man many are tipping for the men’s singles title in front of his adoring fans at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen.

The pressure is on but as soon as Axelsen appeared on the big stage with a huge Danish flag behind him, he demonstrated an assurance that showed he was up for the challenge.

Axelsen overpowered his opening-round opponent, beating Ireland’s Nihat Nguyen 21-6, 21-11 to the delight of the crowd.

The 29-year-old settled any potential early nerves with a thumping smash that left Nguyen flailing before delivering another that proved unreturnable.

He was raining down smashes in the opening points as he got off to a flying start.

Lady luck was also against the Irishman as his attempted drop shot tried to sneak over, touching the net a couple of times only to fall on his side.

A careless mistake also allowed Axelsen to move 8-2 in front when Nguyen let the shuttle drop only for it to touch the baseline.

Nguyen was forced to work incredibly hard as he cut the deficit to 12-5 only for Axelsen to make it 19-5.

Misjudgements at the back of the court were costing Nguyen dear as Axelsen continued to find the line before wrapping up the opening set with an unreturnable smash.

Nguyen took the lead at the start of the second set and started to gain a foothold in the match as he followed up a terrific smash with a drop shot that the diving Axelsen failed to retrieve.

Axelsen responded by winning the next four points to make it 8-5 and did not look back from that moment on.

Nguyen produced some good moments, but Axelsen never looked truly troubled as he moved 14-8 ahead with a crushing shot.

Axelsen continued to crank up the pressure before sealing the match with a brilliant point that ended with a crosscourt smash.

"It’s great to get going," said Axelsen.

"I am really happy to put through the first round here.

"It was definitely not an easy opponent.

"Physically I felt really good, played well and had a great feeling and that’s what gives me the most confidence right now."

Axelsen’s victory came just minutes after compatriot Anders Antonsen, the 12th seed here, saw off Israel’s Micha Zilberman 21-8, 21-15.

Another Dane through to the second round of the men’s singles was Rasmus Gemke who downed The Netherlands’ Mark Caljouw 21-18, 21-16.

The biggest shock of the day was Indonesia's fifth seed Jonatan Christie’s defeat to Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia.

Christie, the reigning Asian Games champion, went down 21-13, 21-15 to Lee who has been awarded with a second-round clash with Canada’s Brian Yang who was leading 11-3 in the opening set when Germany’s Kai Schaffer retired.

There were no other major surprises as third seed and last year’s runner-up Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand beat Brazil’s Ygor Coelho 21-16, 21-14 in the opening round.

Japan’s fourth seed Kodai Naraoka eased to a 21-7, 21-10 triumph against Austria’s Luka Wraber.

He was one of three Japanese players to progress in the competition as 14th seed Kenta Nishimoto and Kanta Tsuneyama triumphed in straight sets.

Several women’s singles matches also took place as Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour beat Belgium’s Lianne Tan 22-20, 9-21, 21-12.

Other winners included Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara, Chinese Taipei’s Wen Chi Hsu and Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour.

Competition is due to continue tomorrow.