JAKARTA: Five-time champion Lin Dan of China and his Malaysian arch-rival Lee Chong Wei eased their way to the second round of the badminton world championships following straight-sets victories on Tuesday.

The fifth-seeded Lin overpowered Sattawat Pongnairat of the United States 21-8, 21-11 while un-seeded Lee outclassed Lithuanian Kestutis Navickas 21-9, 21-13.

Both Lin and Lee are expected to meet in the semi-finals of the men’s singles, with the final scheduled for Sunday.

The pair are long-running foes, with Lin denying Lee gold in two world championships and back-to-back Olympics in 2008 and 2012.

Lin is expected to cruise through his next match but Lee must navigate his way past 12th seed German shuttler Marc Zwiebler.

Also advancing to the second round were third seed Srikanth Kidambi of India, 13rd-seed Hu Yun of Hong Kong, and 14th seed Hans-Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark.

In women’s singles, top seed Carolina Marin had a scare as she embarked on the defence of her world title.

The world number one, who nearly pulled out of the tournament due to injury, lost her first set against Malaysia’s Tee Jing Yi, before finding her feet and delivering some blistering smashes to convincingly claim the match 19-21, 21-14, 21-13.

Others could not control the jitters, with ninth women’s seed Nozomi Okuhara going down a third straight time to un-seeded Thai shuttler Porntip Buranaprasertsuk, while unheralded Pai Yu Po of Taiwan upset 16th seed Maria Febe Kusumastuti of Indonesia.

Third seed Li Xuerui breezed into the third round with a 21-10, 21-11 drubbing of Bulgaria’s Petya Nedelcheva.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2015

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