Defending champion and blue-chip athlete Lin Dan of China began his quest for his third consecutive Olympic gold medal with a dominant 2-0 win over the Austrian David Obernosterer in the ongoing badminton tournament at the 2016 Rio Games on Thursday in Barra Olympic Park Riocentro - Pavillion 4.

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Lin, who is a back-to-back winner in the men's singles event at the last two Olympic Games, registered a 21-5, 21-11 straight set victory in the Group Play Stage. According to Vavel, the five-time world champion won his serve by a whopping 17-3 margin and simply overwhelmed Obernosterer with his play.

The Chinese badminton superstar only had to play against the Austrian's serve six times in the entire opening set to secure a 21-5 victory.

Obernosterer gave the multi-titled Lin a more difficult run in the second game by earning more points. However, the 32-year-old left-handed native of Longyan, Fujian was too much for Obernosterer to handle as Lin flaunted his dominance to wrap up the victory.

Lin will be facing the current world No.13 Vladimir Malkov of Russia on Friday. The 29-year-old Russian lost to the 33-year-old Vietnamese Nguyen Tien in a tough 15-21, 21-9, 21-13 defeat, which makes his upcoming match against the Chinese shuttler a must-win match.

Meanwhile, Chinese 2012 Summer Olympic Games bronze medalist Chen Long defeated the 14-time undisputed men's single national champion of Sri Lanka Niluka Karunaratne in Group P. Chen, world No. 2 in the BWF world rankings, showed his supremacy over the 31-year-old Colombo-based shuttler in a two-straight set win 21-7, 21-10 in just 40 minutes.

In the other match of the day, current world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei easily outclassed Soren Opti of Suriname with an imposing 21-2, 21-3, making a good start for his Olympic gold medal quest.

Tagsbwf rankings, bwf, Lin Dan, Lee Chong Wei, Chen Long, Rio Olympics 2016