It marks a satisfying start for May, the 2010 champion in the event along with former partner Sam Schachter of Toronto, and Demyanenko, his new teammate. They’ve only been together for a month.

The Canadians capped their first day with a 21-11, 21-18 win over China’s Jiasu Dou and Jiaxin Wu.

May, 19, and Demyanenko, 17, began the tournament with a tough three-set win over Latvia’s Abolins Armands and Haralds Regza earlier Thursday. Set scores were 22-20, 19-21 and 15-11.

The six-foot-six Demyanenko is a high-energy, physical force at the net and his two big blocks for points late in the second set against China paced the win. May is a smooth setter and defender.

Canada trailed at times in both matches and had to fight back.

“We’re just happy to get these two wins under our belts,” said May. “But right now we’re focused on our match tomorrow (vs. Italy) and we’ll see where it goes from there.”

The Canadian duo was the focus of a noisy crowd at the stadium court on the waterfront.

“It was definitely helpful,” said Demyaneko. “It got us fired up to win those tough points. It feels great to be on Canadian soil.”

China was even 7-7 in the first set before Canada rolled off 11 of the next 14 points.

“We were just feeling each other out at the beginning of the game and as the match wore on I think Danny and I became more and more comfortable and started figuring them out a little bit,” said May.

Demyanenko got stronger as the afternoon wore on.

“There were a few opportunities for me to really use my instincts,” he said. “I’m really glad with how I was blocking that game.”

The Canadian men won five of six matches overall.

Fiodar Kazhamiaka of Waterloo, Ont., and William Sidgwick of Toronto, seeded sixth, are also 2-0.

They beat fellow Canucks Nick Del Bianco and Ben Chow, both of Vancouver, 21-18, 17-21, 16-14 and Japan’s Tkakumi Takahashi and Tatsuya Watanabe 23-21, 21-19.

Chow and Del Bianco, the seventh seeds, bounced back from their loss to defeat Venezuela’s Jose Ruiz and Maikhol Valero 21-11, 21-12.

The two Canadian teams, Switzerland’s Mirco Gerson and Gabriel Kissling, Poland’s Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak and Ukraine’s Sergiy Popov and Valeriy Samoday are the only 2-0 teams in men’s play.

Canada’s women went 1-5.

The top-ranked tandem of Victoria Altomare and Melissa Humana-Paredes from Toronto lost to the 24th-seeded German pair of Christine Aulenbrock and Isabell Schneider and 21-16, 21-17 to Poland’s Renata Bekier and Daria Paszek.

Toronto’s Alexandra Hudson and Ottawa’s Charlotte Sider, the sixth seeds, beat Namibia’s Julia Laggner and Corinna Wahl 21-12, 21-5 before a 23-25, 21-16, 14-16 heartbreaker against Japan’s Anjiera Ishida and Chiyo Suzuki.

A third Canadian women’s team of Sarah Gosselin of Granby, Que., and Sara Robichaud of Gatineau, Que., lost 21-12, 21-11 to Rimke Braakman and Sophie van Gestel of the Netherlands and 21-11, 10-21, 15-10 to Giada Benazzi and Greta Cavestro of Italy.

The women’s teams from Germany, Poland and the Netherlands along with Tara Roenicke and Rebecca Strehlow of the U.S., Rebecca Cavalcanti and Carolina Horta of Brazil, Victoria Bieneck and Cinja Tillman of Germany, Lingling Lin and Changning Zhang of China and Nina Betschart and Joana Heidrich of Switzerland are 2-0.

Play continues today.

(mmosher@herald.ca)