Kuala Lumpur: World number one Lee Chong Wei today advanced to the last round of the BWF World Superseries Finals, closing in on winning the title for a record fourth time.
The Malaysian, who won three men's singles crowns from 2008-2010, crushed Denmark's Jan O Jorgensen 21-14, 21-16 in 40 minutes to reach Sunday's final on home turf. Lee jointly holds the record of three titles with women's pair Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang of China and Denmark's men's pair Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen.
Wang and Yu, who won from 2010-2012, are out of contention after they pulled out Saturday due to injury. Boe and Mogensen will play later Saturday against world champions Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia.
It was a straight forward victory for Lee, whose court coverage and ability to retrieve every shuttlecock the French Open champion threw at him frustrated the Dane. Lee beat Jorgensen 23-21, 24-22 at the group stage on Friday.
"Today, I was ready for him. I was determined to beat him quickly and started the match on fire," the Olympic silver medallist said. "The only downside to my victory was that I allowed him back into the match in the second game after taking a big lead."
"I have to cut this out as it is not good to give opponents a hint of a comeback."
In the final, Lee will meet the winner of the match between Indonesia's Tommy Sugiarto and Japan's Kenichi Tago. In women's singles, China's Li Xuerui easily beat South Korea's Bae Yeon-Ju 21-15, 21-9. In the women's doubles, world champions Wang and Yu raised eyebrows when they conceded a walkover to compatriots Ma Jin and Tang Jinhua, after citing a hip injury to Yu.
This is not the first time Chinese players have opted out of facing others from their country in international matches and comes on the heels of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) introducing a random draw for the semi-finals in a bid to avoid "game-throwing".
The change was prompted by the scandal at last year's Olympics when Wang and Yu together with three other women's pairs were charged for not using their "best efforts" to win matches.
In the finals, Ma and Tang will now take on Denmark's Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl, who defeated South Koreans Jang Ye-Na and Kim So-Young 21-12, 21-18 on Saturday. The Danish duo, who have a good track record in Malaysia, are hoping to become the first European winners of this category.
In the men's doubles, Kim Ki-Jung and Kim Sa-Rang defeated fellow South Koreans Ko Sung-Hyun and Lee Yong-Dae 21-14, 19-21, 21-16.
