Lee inspires Malaysia to narrow win over India

Lee Chong Wei's return from a doping ban gathered pace on Monday as he overcame K. Srikanth to inspire Malaysia's narrow 3-2 win over India at the Sudirman Cup.

The former world number one was put through his paces by Srikanth, currently ranked fourth, before he won the men's singles 21-16, 21-15 in 40 minutes.

It turned out to be vital as the two nations were locked at 2-2 before Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying's decisive mixed doubles win over N. Sikki Reddy and Arun Vishnu.

In other results at the biennial mixed-teams tournament in southern China, Germany upset Thailand 3-2, Taiwan beat Russia 4-1 and Indonesia were 3-2 winners over England.

Lee, the two-time Olympic silver medallist, is playing his first event since receiving a backdated, eight-month ban for accidentally ingesting a banned anti-inflammatory.

After Sunday's strong performance against South Korea's Lee Dong-Keun, the Malaysian star found it tougher against Srikanth until a six-point burst put him ahead in game one.

Srikanth, 21, came back firing but he was denied by elastic defence from Lee, including some tremendous work for 18-16 before he took the opener in 18 minutes.

Lee was never behind in the second game, although he was under pressure when Srikanth reached 11-13 with a sizzling backhand winner played with his back to the net.

But Lee won the next three points and when he leapt to hammer a towering smash winner for 18-13, it was clear the 32-year-old was on his way to victory.

Later Chan and Goh were again the heroes for Malaysia as, a day after also winning the decisive rubber match against South Korea, they won 21-14, 21-18 to seal the tie.

Nine-time champions China are strong favourites on home soil and include Chen Long and Lin Dan, the current world number one and two who have both denied Lee major titles.
Source: AFP