Defending Thomas Cup champion China pummeled France 5-0 while the Chinese women defending their Uber Cup championship routed Russia 5-0 to give China a frightening start to its title retention campaigns.  

World No.2 Chen Long defeated Brice Leverdez while No.6 Du Pengyu disposed of Lucas Corvee to give China a 2-0 lead in the singles. Later on, the team of Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan's won 21-16 21-14 over Gaetan Mittelheisser and Bastian Kersaudy.

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World and Olympic champion Lin Dan (nicknamed Super Dan), the fourth ranked Chinese player, had a relatively easy time against Lucas Claerbout in the third singles, winning 21-5 21-11. Liu Xiaolong and Qiu Zihan won 21-14 21-18 over Baptiste Careme and Lucas Corvee to complete China's clean sweep of its first day matches at the Thomas Cup.

The Chinese women began their title defense of the Uber Cup with a 5-0 pounding of Russia in Group W. Li Xuerui  brushed aside a tough challenge from Natalia Perminova to win the opening singles match,  21-17 21-10.

Wang Yihan made it 2-0 with a 21-13 21-13 triumph over Anastasia Chervaykova. Sun Yu clinched the tie by waylaying Evgeniya Kosetskaya 21-11 21-9 in under 30 minutes.

Bao Yixin and Tang Jinhua and Olympic champions Zhao Yunlei and Tian Qing made short work of their respective doubles opponents.

The Chinese women, however, refused to call themselves the title favorites and the odds-on bet to win an eighth Uber Cup title in the last nine competitions since 1998.

"Winning one tie is not enough, there is a long way to go in the tournament," said World No. 2 Wang Yihan after winning the second singles.

China's Thomas Cup team, which competes in Group D, consists of Chen Long, Du Pengyu, Tian Houwei, Lin Dan, Fu Haifeng, Hong Wei, Chai Biao, Liu Xiaolong, Zhang Nan and Qiu Zihan.

The Uber Cup team members are Li Xuerui, Wang Shixian, Wang Yihan, Yu Sun, Zhao Yunlei, Bao Yixin, Ma Jin, Wang Xiaoli, Tang Jinhua and Tian Qing.

The Li-Ning Badminton World Federation Thomas & Uber Cup Finals 2014 are being held in New Delhi and will end May 24.

TagsSports, Thomas Cup, Uber Cup