Lee, who is trying to become the first Malaysian to win a world badminton title, earned the silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Next year’s Olympics will be played at Wembley.

“I feel quite confident, and it’s going well, but my most important opponent will still be my next one,” said Lee, who had to play through a draft in the arena.

Lee will next face ninth-seeded Park Sung-hwan, who ended Lin Dan’s world title defense last year in Paris and who overcame Shon Wan-ho 21-14, 21-10 Wednesday to also advance.

Also, former top-ranked player Peter Gade of Denmark defeated Stanislav Pukhov of Russia 21-5, 21-9.

In the women’s tournament, Commonwealth Games champion Saina Nehwal of India beat Chloe Magee of Ireland 21-10, 21-7.

“All the players are putting up a tough fight these days, and all girls can do well,” Nehwal said. “And I am fit enough and playing well enough to have a chance of beating them. I just have to do my best, that’s all.”

Results (Prefix denotes seeding):

Men’s singles second round — 1-Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia) beat Ville Lang (Finland) 21-10, 21-11; 6-Chen Jin (China) beat Dicky Palyama (Netherlands) 21-13, 21-17; Kevin Cordon (Guatemala) beat Henri Hurskainen (Sweden) 21-19, 21-17; 9-Park Sung-hwan (South Korea) beat Shon Wan-ho (South Korea) 21-14, 21-10; 3-Peter Gade (Denmark) beat Stanislav Pukhov (Russia) 21-5, 21-9; 11-Sho Sosaki (Japan) beat Toby Penty (England) 21-13, 21-13; Pablo Abian (Spain) beat 14-Marc Zwiebler (Germany) 21-17, 7-21, 24-22; Hans-Kristian Vittinghus (Denmark) beat Mathieu Lo Ying Ping (France) 21-8, 21-14; Ajay Jayaram (India) beat Vladimir Ivanov (Russia) 21-19, 21-17

Women’s singles third round — 3-Wang Xin (China) beat Anastasia Prokopenko (Russia) 21-15, 21-13; 6-Saina Nehwal (India) beat Chloe Magee (Ireland) 21-10, 21-7; 14-Pui Yin Yip (Hong Kong) beat Li Michelle (France) 23-21, 17-21, 21-17; Pi Hongyan (France) beat Bae Youn-joo (South Korea) 21-19, 15-21, 21-13