Lee and Lin renew rivalry
Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan will meet in the final of the Yonex All England Open Championships.
Last Updated: 10/03/12 10:18pm
Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan, the world's best two players, will meet in the final of the Yonex All England Open Championships for a third time.
Defending champion and top seed Lee, of Malaysia, booked his place in Sunday's men's singles showpiece in Birmingham with victory over Korea's Lee Hyun-il 21-19 21-18.
His arch-rival Lin, bidding for a fifth All England title, then joined him by reaching the final for a seventh time with a hard-fought 21-18 21-17 win over Japan's Kenichi Tago.
Lee was troubled slightly by a hand injury but is not overly concerned as he prepares to renew hostilities with second seed Lin.
Problem
The pair have both beaten each other previously in the Birmingham final, Lin winning in 2009 and Lee gaining revenge last year.
Yet it is their last meeting in England, in the final of the World Championships in London last August, which is most keenly remembered.
Lin, the 2008 Olympic champion, prevailed on that occasion, coming from behind to win what is widely regarded as one of the greatest matches of all time in three games.
Lee said: "I enjoyed my match today. I have a small problem with my hand today but nothing serious and I will be fine tomorrow.
"I am pleased with the way I played, my movement was good."
Mixed doubles pair Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Juhl of Denmark will be the only European representatives on an Asian-dominated finals day.
The eighth seeds and 2005 runners-up produced a shock to see off defending champions and second seeds Xu Chen and Ma Jin 21-16 21-18.
They will now play Indonesia's Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir after the fourth seeds - conquerors of England's Nathan Robertson and Jenny Wallwork yesterday - beat Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh 27-25 21-16.
Calm
Laybourn said: "It was tougher than it looked. We had to be very ready mentally and if we gave them a little bit of a chance they were on us.
"I think we played with a bit more tactics and kept calm, rather than getting into a fight. I think they were a bit shaken by how calm we were."
The defending champions in the men's doubles, Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark, also went out as they were beaten 21-14 21-13 by Korea's Jung Jae-sung and Lee Yong-dae, the second seeds.
They will play Chinese top seeds Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng in the final after their 21-10 21-15 win over Japan's Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Noriyasu Hirata.
The finals of the women's events will both be all-Chinese affairs.
Top seed Wang Yihan will play Li Xuerui in the singles while the doubles will be between Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang - also seeded one - and Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei.
