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Jacquelin and Huang joint leaders in China

12/04/2007

France's Raphael Jacquelin and local favourite Ming Jie Huang lead the China Open after the opening round at the Shanghai Silport golf club.

Both players carded three-under-par rounds of 68 to lead by a single shot on the tricky course, which was beset by windy conditions throughout the day.

American Gary Rusnak is third on two-under as he carded two birdies in the final four holes to go into the clubhouse happy.

Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell and Denmark's Thomas Bjorn are part of an 11-man group on one-under-par after the opening round.

The course conditions did not allow for any low scores at the course, situated on the outskirts of China's financial capital.

Huang himself carded three consecutive bogeys in his first three holes of the tournament but recovered well, while Jacquelin, a runner-up in the Portuguese Open two weeks ago, had a good front nine but faded slightly later in his round.

And the Frenchman admitted that any under-par score was a "great" effort on the day.

"I said to my caddie as we set out, anything under par will be good so just try and par every hole," he said.

"We knew we would have to chip and putt all day long. Par would have been a good score and three under is even better."

Bjorn, the highest-ranked player in the field, admitted that his battle against the elements had been "a big adjustment… from Augusta".

"You come from the widest fairways of the year [at the US Masters] to the narrowest of the year here," he said.

"To take some positives from last week, you have to grind and that is what I did."

The highest-placed Englishman in the field after day one is Yasin Ali, who is part of the group of players on one-under-par.

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