China

World No 1 Lee hopes to shrug off pressures at badminton worlds

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-08-24 09:51

PARIS - World No.1 Lee Chong Wei on Monday expressed his hope to shrug off all the pressures during his journey at the World Badminton Championships.

"Reaching the final is good enough," said the Malaysian here.

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Lee, 27, sent off opponent Kevin Cordon of Guatemala 21-7, 21-11 in the first round of the men's singles, unveiling the annual World Championships Monday morning.

"Everyone wants to be the world champion. As for me, I have missed the title for three years, but I won't pin all my hopes on the championships," said the top seed. "I just want to play well and reaching the final is good enough."

Lee believed that shouldering too much pressure was one of the reasons that he yet to claims a world champion title.

"There hasn't any Malaysian won the World Championships, so we are expected to make breakthrough. But maybe I'm longing for it too much, I missed it every time," said Lee.

China's Olympic champion  Lin Dan also cruised into the next round by beating Ali Shahhosseini from Iran in 21-4, 21-10. The three-time world champion revealed that he was not in his top form and claimed Lee as the title favourite.

Lee is going to face his teammate Muhammad Hafiz Hashim in the second round.