Mumbai: World number one Lee Chong Wei lived up to his reputation by easing his way past Malaysian compatriot Daren Liew on his Indian Badminton League debut before All England women's champion Tine Baun followed suit to provide a flying 2-0 start to Mumbai Masters against Krishh Delhi Smashers in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Lee, who joined the team just before this clash after missing Mumbai's first two ties against Banga Beats and Pune Pistons, raced away to a 21-12, 21-16 victory over world number 17 Liew in 35 minutes at the NSCI stadium courts to help the hosts take a 1-0 lead.
Later, Dane Baun, who retired from international badminton after winning her third All England title in March, crushed former national champion Arundhati Pantawane 21-11, 21-13 in just over half an hour to increase Mumbai's advantage.
The crowd, which included Indian cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar, saw 30-year-old Lee toying with his Malaysian compatriot Liew in the opening game of their men's singles encounter that kicked off the tie.
But the 26-year-old Liew put up a much better fight in the second and led for a major portion before the world number one surged into the lead at 14-13 ahead of the second break.
Lee did not play at his best, especially in the second game when his play was replete with errors - in line judgement and strokes - but it was enough for the 30-year old Olympic and World Championship silver medallist to chalk out a straight-game win and take his head-to-head record against Liew to 3-0.
Liew has never taken a single game off Lee in their two previous international encounters last year at the Danish and Malaysian Opens and appeared as if he might do so in this match before his senior compatriot struck a purple patch late in the second game to win the tie.
Lee, who used his jump smashes and showed superb retrieval prowess against his Malaysian rival, was up 7-2 in the first game with Liew a bit error-prone.
The gap was narrowed by Liew to 9-12 when Lee netted a few shots. Liew was not consistent enough to keep the pressure on his fancied rival and trailed 9-16. A smash winner gave Lee the game point and he sealed off the game after his rival saved a game point and then committed a service error. The game lasted 15 minutes.
Lee went off the boil in the initial part of the second game by making several unforced errors that helped Liew maintain a small lead. The former, however, never allowed his rival to increase the lead to more than a few points and then went ahead for the first time at 14-13.
Lee stepped up the pace at this stage and left his opponent in his wake with jump smashes and net drops to go to match point and finished off the match with another leap smash to his rival's backhand that beat Liew all ends up.
The women's encounter between 34-year-old Baun and Arundhati was totally lop-sided as the 1.81m tall Dane, a former world number one, simply overpowered her shorter rival by her quality of play in 31 minutes.
Baun won the first game in 14 minutes after grabbing 7-2 and 14-6 leads at the short breaks. A tap at Arundhati's body put her on game point and then her rival smashed out to drop the opener.
The second game too went on similar lines though Arundhati managed to narrow the lead midway but once Baun tightened up her game again, there was no stopping her. The last point was again conceded by Arundhati by smashing the 'bird' out.
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