NONTHABURI (Thailand): China remained perfect in their campaign to regain the Thomas Cup badminton title after dispatching France 5-0 for a second straight group win on Monday.
Olympic champions Chen Long and Lin Dan contributed to the lop-sided win, a day after pasting Australia 5-0.
China, who are looking to banish an embarrassing quarter-final loss on home soil in 2016, have won the cup in five of the last seven editions.
South Korea remained atop their group after beating Canada 4-1.
Defending champions Denmark, led by world champion Viktor Axelsen, outclassed first-time qualifiers Algeria 5-0.
Axelsen was in unforgiving form, losing just 12 points in a 16-minute destruction (21-4, 21-8) of Youcef Sabri Medel to begin the rout of Algeria.
Anders Antonsen dispatched Mohamed Abderrahime Belarbi 21-5, 21-9 in the second singles match, while Denmark’s doubles pairs also blitzed their unfancied rivals.
Elsewhere in Group ‘D’, Malaysia steamrolled Russia 5-0 with Lee Chong Wei setting the tone in the first game during a 21-9, 21-6 win against Vladimir Malkov.
In Uber Cup, top-seeded Japan collected their second group win after whitewashing Canada 5-0.
India made amends for their opening loss to Canada by beating Australia 4-1.
In another group containing three powerhouses of badminton — China, Indonesia, Malaysia — defending champions China opened their campaign by defeating first-time qualifiers France 5-0.
Li Xuerui, the London Olympic champion who tore knee ligaments in the Rio de Janeiro Olympic semi-finals, played in her first major event since then and won her singles for China.
Indonesia edged Malaysia 3-2.
Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2018
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