Top seed Lee Chongwei beat German Bjoern Joppien in straight sets in the second round on Wednesday to move one step closer to a possible encounter with seventh seed Chinese Bao Chunlai in the quarterfinals of the World Badminton Championships in Madrid, Spain.

The second seed Lin Dan of China also found no trouble in disposing of Canadian Bobby Milroy 21-16, 21-17, a deceptive scoreline as the 22-year-old Lin intentionally played a longer match so that he could have more time to get used to the court.

"He is not so strong that I should use this chance to get myself familiar with the court," Lin said.

The 23-year-old Lee shook off a slow start to win by 21-18, 21-14 in 27 minutes.

"My form is not so good right now, I need to do more work," he said.

When talking about the possible meeting with Bao, he said :"There is no easy games in the World Championships, every game will be tough, as the newly introduced 21-point scoring system makes the games treacherous."

"For sure, the Chinese players will be my toughest rivals in this championships," he added.

Bao advanced to the third round after beat Juergen Koch of Austria 21-13, 21-14.

His teammate Chen Jin, the third seed, also reached the final 16 with a 21-16, 21-13 win over Nguyen Tien Minh from Vietnam.

The reigning champion, unseeded Hidayat Taufik rallied from one set down to beat Kestutis Navickas of Lithuania 19-21, 21-15, 21-10.

In the women's singles competition, top seed Zhang Ning, who was awarded a first-round bye, breezed past Xing Aiying of Singapore 21-8, 21-8 to reach the third round.

"The first match is always a tough one for every player, especially given some air turbulence around the court, I think my performance is Ok," she said.

The 31-year-old reigning Olympic titlist manifested a strong desire to play.

"Finally I can play the match now, I have been working out for five days, I am afraid too much training will wear away my forms," she said.

The second seed Xu Huaiwen from Germany also progressed to the final 16 with a 21-19, 21-18 win over Spanish player Yoana Martinez.

The reigning champion Xie Xingfang from China, seeded third, reached the third round as she took 25 minutes to beat Rachel van Cutsen of the Netherlands 21-13, 21-16.

(Xinhua News Agency September 21, 2006)