BORDEAUX, France, Nov. 21 -- Chinese figure skating experienced up and downs on the opening day of Trouphee Eric Bompard, the fifth and penultimate event of the season's six ISU figure skating Grand Prix.

Both the pairs of China, coached by former Olympic and world champion Zhao Hongbo, executed near perfect performance on Friday when Sui Wenjing and Han Cong followed leaders Ksenia Stolbova/ Fedor Klimov by 3.93 points, and Wang Xuehan and Wang Lei sit on the third.

"We've given all out, though the program component score was not satisfactory," said Sui, twice Four Continents winner partnering Han.

Their technical element score held a deficit of just 0.51 points trailing the Russian duo, but a much lower factored score made quite a difference.

It has been a tremendous progress for the other Chinese pair, however, as Wang/Wang, who made their senior debutants in 2013, finished on third two weeks ago in Shanghai and another podium finish will boost their chance of qualifying for the Grand Prix Final in Barcelona in three weeks.

Stolbova and Klimov seemed determined while leading the field, as the world and Olympic silver medalists have hoped to win back- to-back Grand Prix titles after a title-winning run in Moscow last week.

In the men's singles competition, China's top male skater Yan Han was penultimate among 11 men ahead of the men's singles free skate after having stumbled to skip a quad toeloop.

The 18-year-old performed an otherwise passionate routine with just that one element missing, which resulted in 73.18 points with a fourth high skill skating score and a one-point deduction.

Yan, who suffered a hard clash with Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu in a warm-up at the Cup of China in Shanghai two weeks ago, is still uncomfortable with his left chest muscles but refused to blame the injury as an excuse.

"I just did a terrible job today," commented the former world junior champion. "There's no excuses."

He said the consequences of the Cup of China incident has an impact on his performance more in a mental way, rather than physically.

"From time to time, I felt unsafe in rink and could not let it, " he added. "It bothered me a lot."

Olympic bronze medalist Denis Ten of Kazakhstan was the leader on 91.78 points, while Japan's Tatsuki Machida, the world silver medalist earlier this year, was the second, trailing by 3.08. Russia's Konstantin Menshov settled for the third place temporarily with a score of 87.47.

Russian duo Elena Radionova and Julia Lipnitskaia finished 1-2 in the women's singles short program with American skater Ashley Wagner on the third, while Cup of China champions Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron of France leading the short dance by a margin of 2.16.