The Hong Kong-born Canadian upset Thai 10th seed Porntip Buranaprasertsuk 20-22, 21-18, 21-11 at the Ballerup Super Arena in Copenhagen to make it through to the last 16 of the showpiece tournament.

"She was hitting a lot of winners in the first game," Li said of Buranaprasertsuk.

"I wanted to prevent her attacking so much, and knew I had a better chance if I kept the shuttle flat."

Her next opponent will be Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei player, who defeated Bellaetrix Manuputty of Indonesia 21-12, 21-14 to progress.

Wang Yihan, the Chinese star who won the world title three years ago, went through after overcoming Anna Thea Madsen of Denmark 21-13, 21-13, as did European champion Carolina Marin, but that was not before an hour-long battle against Tee Jing Yi, which the Spaniard ultimately won 21-18, 16-21, 21-10.

Jan Ø Jørgensen delighted the home crowd with another victory at the Badminton World Championships ©Getty Images


The men's singles competition saw Ville Lång pushing Hong Kong's ninth seeded player Hu Yun to his very limit before the Finn went down to a 17-21, 21-15, 21-17 defeat.

The home crowd were treated to the sight of Jan Ø Jørgensen advancing in the competition after he overcame Finland's Eetu Heino 21-9, 21-17 in only 29 minutes.

Viktor Axelsen and Hans-Kristian Vittinghus also secured victories for Denmark on home turf, defeating Erik Meijs of The Netherlands and Belgian's Yuhan Tan respectively.

Top favourite Lee Chong Wei from Malaysia remains on track for a medal after he ended German Dieter Domke's World Championships with a 21-12, 21-9 victory.

Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia and China's Chen Long are also through to the third round, while Chinese 11th seed Tian Houwei surprisingly lost his match 21-15, 21-16 at the hands of Eric Pang of The Netherlands.

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