Lin, Shi set up All England badminton final

BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom: Lin Dan closed in on a seventh men’s singles title at the Badminton All-England Open championships when he reached Sunday’s final with a 21-14, 13-21, 21-11 victory over Chinese compatriot Huang Yuxiang.

If the 34-year-old beats another Chinese opponent, the seventh seeded Shi Yuqi, he will move to within one title of Rudy Hartono’s record eight All-England titles, although the Indonesian’s successes occurred before the Open era. Lin is already assured of one record, though, after booking his place in a 10th All England final.

He was far from his brilliant best in Saturday’s semifinal, however, as the unseeded Huang took advantage of a temporary drop in Lin’s standard of play to take his illustrious opponent to a deciding game.

But Lin turned on the style again in the third game, with some clever changes of pace, and sudden penetrating attacks, exuding a confidence which suggested the result was never in doubt.

His opponent on Sunday, Shi Yuqi, made sure there will be a Chinese winner when he beat Son Wan Ho, the fifth seeded Korean 21-17, 21-14, to reach the final for the second successive year.

There could be a record in the women’s singles too, after Akane Yamaguchi, the World Super Series titleholder from Japan, reached the final in an exhausting one-hour 20-minutes encounter with Pusarla Sindhu, the Olympic silver medallist from India, eventually prevailing 19-21, 21-19, 21-18.

If Yamaguchi has enough energy left to beat Tai Tzu-ying, the top-seeded titleholder from Taiwan, she will become the first All-England women’s singles champion from Japan since Hiroe Yuki in 1977, when the game was still officially amateur. Tai beat eighth-seeded Chen Yufei of China 21-15, 20-22, 21-3. Yamaguchi snatched the second game with a dramatic net cord, and then fought back from 7-13 down in decider.

All England Open results (x denotes seeding): Men singles semifinals: Shi Yuqi (CHN x7) bt Son Wan Ho (KOR x5) 21-17, 21-14

Lin Dan (CHN x6) bt Huang Yuxiang (CHN) 21-14, 13-21, 21-11

Women: Tai Tzu-ying (TPE x1) bt Chen Yufei (CHN x8) 21-15, 20-22, 21-13

Akane Yamaguchi (JPN x2) bt Pusarla Sindhu (IND x4) 19-21, 21-19, 21-18

Men doubles: Marcus Gideon/Kevin Sukamuljo (INA x1) bt Mads Pieler Kolding/Mads Conrad-Petersen (DEN x6) 21-11, 21-19

Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen (DEN x2) bt Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe (JPN) 21-17, 21-17

Women: Kamilla Rytter Juhl/Christinna Pedersen (DEN x3) bt Mayu Matsumoto/ Wakana Nagahara (JPN) 21-15, 22-20

Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota (JPN x4) bt Shiho Tanaka /Koharu Yonemoto (JPN x5) 16-21, 21-10, 21-12

Mixed: Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong (CHN x5) bt Mathias Christiansen/Christinna Pedersen (DEN x6) 18-21, 21-14, 21-19

Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino (JPN) bt Zhang Nan/Li Yinhui (CHN x8) 21-14, 21-18.