Momota in shock withdrawal from Hong Kong Open

World No. 1 Kento Momota unexpectedly withdrew from badminton's Hong Kong Open on Tuesday — without playing a match — leaving Indian challenger Kidambi Srikanth to advance to the second round.

The shock departure comes only a few days after the 24-year-old beat Chinese Taiepi's world No. 2 Chou Tien-chen to claim his 10th title of the year at the Fuzhou China Open, seemingly on an unstoppable path to 2020 Olympic glory in Tokyo.

Momota and Srikanth — who have played each other 15 times, with the Japanese player winning 12 matches — were set to clash on Wednesday, but there was no indication why top seed had withdrawn from his first match.

Srikanth will now face either compatriot Sourabh Verma or Frenchman Brice Leverdez to reach the quarterfinal.

The 26-year-old has been on mixed form after crashing out of the Denmark Open in October.

Momota, with over 300 wins under his belt, saw his career descend into controversy in 2016 when he was suspended for more than a year for visiting an illegal casino and was denied a spot at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The star, who was world No. 2 at the time, has since worked his way back to the top and his win in China had raised his Olympic hopes a year ahead of the Tokyo Games.

This year alone he claimed Japan's first All England men's series title in March, retaining the Japan open — which also doubled up as a test event for the 2020 Olympics — before triumphing at the Victor China Open, the Korea Open, and the Denmark Open.

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Earlier, the Hong Kong Open began despite fresh protests across the financial hub with a number of the Chinese city's players qualifying for the main draw to delight their home fans.

The BWF Super 500 event, featuring many top players from mainland China, had been thrown into doubt due to the protests.

Cheung Ying Mei was up at dawn to battle traffic and the crippled city transport system to get to the Hong Kong Coliseum venue on time, but it was worth it after her 21-10, 20-22, 21-19 win against Indonesia's Lyanny Alessandra Mainaky.

Cheung will face Denmark's Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt in the women's singles first round on Wednesday.

Hong Kong mixed doubles pair Ng Tsz Yau and Yeung Ming Nok had a bitter-sweet win over compatriots Yeung Shing Choi and Ka Yan Fan 21-14, 21-13.

"They are our team, too," Ng said but Yeung declined to give an opinion on the protests, emphasizing that they hadn't affected the tournament.

"Even in the city, with what is happening, they (fans) also come in to cheer," Yeung said, adding the crowd was "supporting all of Hong Kong, everything".

Yeung then teamed up with Chang Tak Ching in the men's doubles to beat the Chinese Taipei pair Chang Ko-chi and Lu Chia-pin 21-18, 21-17.

The duo faces China's Ou Xuanyi and Zhang Nan in the first round.