Kunlavut Vitidsarn advanced to the second round of the BWF World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Monday.
The Thai third seed defeated Jonathan Matias of Brazil 21-16, 21-14 in 44 minutes at Royal Arena.
The world No.3 will play the winner of the first round match between Job Castillo of Mexico and Egor Coelho of Brazil.
Kunlavut, 22, was a finalist at last year's championships, losing to Viktor Axelsen in the title match.
Kunlavut has won the India Open and the Thailand Open this year and was a finalist at the US Open.
Another Thai hope Kanthaphon Wangcharoen was due to meet Fabio Caponio of Mexico in the first round match later last night.
While men's doubles pair Supak Jomkoh and Kittinupong Kedren were also due to play their opening match last night.
In other early results on Monday, men's seventh seed Loh Kean Yew of Singapore defeated Pablo Abian of Spain 21-12, 21-9; 10th seed Chou Tien-chen of Taiwan beat Kevin Cordon of Guatemala 21-16, 21-9.
In women's event, Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland edged Lianne Tan of Germany 22-20, 9-21, 21-12.
Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia defeated Vivien Sandorhazi of Hungary 21-18, 21-15 and former champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan proved too strong for Nguyen Thuy Linh of Vietnam, winning 21-15, 21-12.