World champion Lin Dan's Asian Games campaign almost suffered an embarrassing start on Thursday when the Chinese star's driver delayed him by 20 minutes because he had gone off for coffee.
The incident upset the player, known as "Super Dan," because for the first set he was pushed hard by Indian opponent Anup Sridhar and only prevailed 21-19 as he started off China's men's team bid to turn the bronze from four years ago into gold this time.
However, Lin moved into another gear in the second and eased home 21-11 over a valiant Indian opponent as China won the match 5-0, not losing a set in the process.
PHOTO: AFP
Later in the evening session Indonesia replicated a similar result over the Indians, though they were pushed all the way with three of their matches going to the decisive set.
Lin's fiancee Xie Xingfang had earlier spearheaded a similar result for the Chinese women's team as they swamped Malaysia 5-0, though their opponents pushed them hard in the first two sets.
China's main rivals Malaysia eased through their first group match sweeping Japan 5-0 with their main hope for the singles title Lee Chong Wei and another medal hope Hashim Muhammad Hafiz both recording straight set wins over Shoji Sato and So Sasaki respectively.
Strong rivals for the gold South Korea also had a relatively easy time of it, beating Vietnam 4-1 in the morning's other match, although their number one player, and world number seven, Lee Hyun-il was beaten.
Indonesia's Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat led off their cleansweep of the Indians. Again, Sridhar played with distinction and only lost 23-21, 21-16.
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