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