Top seeds make solid start at badminton Superseries finals

KUALA LUMPUR - World No.1 Lee Chong Wei and Li Xuerui both made solid starts at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Superseries Finals here Wednesday as the two quashed their opponents in the first round of group stage.

The home-favorite Lee didn't give much chance to the Wang Zhengming by defeating the young Chinese shuttler in straight-set 21-10, 21-18. Lee is expecting fewer difficulties in the tournament as his major Chinese rivals, including Lin Dan, Chen Long and Du Pengyu failed to qualify for the finals.

Li Xuerui began the defence of her Women's Singles Superseries Finals title with a 21-9, 21-7 demolition of South Korea's Bae Yeon Ju in Group B. Li's Chinese teammate, Wang Shixian, also secured a victory over Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei 21-16, 23-21 in Group A.

Japan's Minatsu Mitani made a strong comeback against Saina Nehwal from India with 19-21, 24-22, 21-19 in a one hour and eight minute match.

In Men's Doubles, Lee Yong Dae's temporary reunion with his South Korean compatriot Ko Sung Hyun didn't start well as they lost to three-time defending Superseries Finals champions, Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen from Denmark.

In Women's Doubles, the two Chinese pairs - Ma Jin/Tang Jinhua and world No.1 Yu Yang/Wang Xiaoli seem destined to continue China 's dominance as both pairs got over their opponents with straight win respectively.

In Mixed Doubles, Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei from China beat Indonesian pair Markis Kido and Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth 21-9, 21-8. Another Chinese pair, Xu Chen and Ma Jin, was defeated by Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Christinna Pedersen from Denmark 11-21, 20-22 after squandering 3 set points in the second set.