The seventh seed Bao Chunlai of China made an easy work of Stanislav Pukhov as he breezed past the Russian player 21-15, 21-12 as the World Badminton Championships swung into action on Monday.
 
"Technically speaking, he is not so good, so the match was not that tough for me," the 24-year-old Chinese said.

"There was some choppy wind around the court, so this game offered me a very good chance to get used to the tricky conditions there.

"It is very important to have a right mentality to play under that kind of circumstances, you must make sure not to be affected by the pesky wind, otherwise you would be prone to mistakes," he added.

Athens Olympics men's silver medallist Shon Seung Mo made an early exit.

The unseeded South Korean was outpaced by 14th seed Joachim Persson of Denmark in the first round 22-20, 21-13.

"I couldn't keep up with his pace, that's the main reason for my loss," the taciturn South Korean muttered. The men's top four seeds, who are Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, Lin Dan of China, Chen Jin of China and Peter Gade of Denmark, were awarded first-round byes.

The reigning titlist Hidayat Taufik of Indonesia will play his first-round match against Wei NG from Chinese Hong Kong.

(Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2006)