London, Mar 12 (UNI) China's top seed Shi Yuqi cruised into the second round of the men's singles event at the All England Badminton Championships by sweeping Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo of Indonesia 21-13, 21-8 in Birmingham here.
Shi, 29, led the head-to-head 4-0 against Dwi Wardoyo ahead of Tuesday's match and needed only 34 minutes to defeat the 26-year-old world No. 34.
The current world No. 1 Shi will face Chou Tien-Chen of Chinese Taipei in the last 16 round after the world No. 9 outplayed Frenchman Christo Popov 21-10, 21-12.
Shi's compatriot Li Shifeng, who was crowned champion at the All England two years ago, overcame Canadian Brian Yang 21-11, 18-21, 21-16 to set up a second-round clash against Toma Junior Popov.
In the men's doubles, top seeds Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen suffered an early exit as the Danish duo lost to Indonesian pair Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Daniel Marthin 22-20, 21-18.
The women's top two seeds, An Se-young from South Korea and Wang Zhiyi of China, will both play in the opening round on Wednesday, while the third seed, Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, started her campaign by defeating Vietnamese Nguyen Thuy Linh 21-19, 21-12.
UNI/XINHUA BM