Lin and Lee sail into top eight of badminton singles at Rio Olympics

Badminton superstars Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei sailed into the top eight in the men's singles at the Rio Olympic Games here on Sunday.

Two-time men's singles champion Lin of China barely broke a sweat brushing aside Vietnam's Nguyen Tien Minh, 21-7 21-12, while his close rival Lee of Malaysia spent five minutes less in disposing off the challenge of Singapore's Derek Wong, 21-18, 21-8.

Lin and Lee won their groups with three consecutive wins and are on the way for their semifinals clash.

Second seed Chen Long of China also topped the group with three wins after his final group opponent Kevin Cordon retired from the competition. As the top three seeds Lee, Chen and Lin enjoyed a bye in the round of 16, all of them entered the top eight directly.

In women's singles, defending champion Li Xuerui, and her Chinese compatriot Wang Yihan won their groups without trouble.

Saina Nehwal, Indian fifth seed, however was stunned by world No.61 Ukrainian Maria Ulitina 21-18, 21-19. She blamed a right knee for her loss. With both players having beaten Brazil's Lohaynny Vicente in Group G, Ulitina's victory Sunday ensured her promotion as group winner into the knock-out stage.

"My right knee was hurting and affected my movement," said Nehwal. "I tried hard, but I wasn'table to do my best. The knee started hurting just before the Olympics, during training, but it got aggravated here."

Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon, Japan's Nozomi Okuhara, her compatriot Akane Yamaguchi, and South Korea's Sung Ji Hyun, India's PV Sindhu also powered into the knock out stage.

In mix doubles, China's pairs Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei, Xu Chen and Ma Jin, gold and silver medalists at the London Olympics, defeated Japanese and South Korean pairs respectively to enter the semifinals. Endit