World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei breezed through his first round contest against Guatemala’s Kevin Cordon 21-7, 21-11 on the opening morning of the world badminton championships yesterday.
The match was the first on court at the Pierre de Coubertin Stadium in Paris and world-ranked 54 Cordon delayed the talented Malaysian for only 26 minutes.
Top seed Lee will face a trickier second round clash against compatriot Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, ranked 21 in the world and All England champion in 2003.
Hashim beat Belgium’s Tan Yuhan 21-13, 21-15 yesterday.
World and Olympic champion Lin Dan of China defeated Iran’s 83-ranked Ali Shahhosseini, 21-4, 21-9.
Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia pulled out of the championships because of a sore back.
Organizers announced the 2007 finalist’s withdrawal on Sunday.
The sixth-seeded Kuncoro won the bronze medal at last year’s worlds in Hyderabad, India.
“With Kuncoro’s withdrawal, some things have opened up in the bottom half of the draw,” reigning European champion Peter Gade of Denmark said.
INJURY TURMOIL: Despite stunning French Open champions Paolini and Errani to advance, Chan was forced to pull out after her partner’s tearful women’s singles defeat Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign. Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two
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