Super Dan to fight for All England Open title against teammate Shi
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E-mail Xinhua, March 18, 2018
Two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan will meet seventh seed Shi Yuqi in an all-Chinese final at the All England Open badminton championships after beating another teammate Huang Yuxiang in Birmingham on Saturday.
Lin will finish level with English legend Erland Kops on seven men's singles title if he beats Shi, last year's beaten finalist, in Sunday's final, only one short of Indonesian Rudy Hartono's record of eight.
The 34-year-old, nicknamd Super Dan by his fans, led all the way to win the first game 21-14, but lost concentration in the second, losing to the attacking Huang 21-13. He regained form in the third to make short work of the 25-year-old Huang 21-11.
"I think I played quite well," Lin said. "In the second game I did make a few mistakes. I didn't control the shuttle well enough and my opponent played some really good points."
It will by no means be an easy final for Lin considering Shi, who turned 22 three weeks ago, stopped him in the semifinals last year.
Shi has grown more mature since that victory and become the most consistent player in the star-studded Chinese national team. He took his first major title at Indian Open in February and scored his first win at international arena over Olympic champion and two-time winner Chen Long in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Shi produced a superb performance in the day's first men's singles semifinal by beating South Korea's Son Wan Ho 21-17,21-14.
Lin said of the final, "I am feeling great, so hopefully I will be able to put in a good performance and get a new record."
China will have to wait for one more year for their first women's singles title since 2014 as Chen Yufei was beaten by defending champion Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei 21-15, 20-22, 21-13.
Tai will defend her title against Japan's 20-year-old Akane Yamaguchi, who fought back from one game down and trailing 13-7 in the third game to edge out Pusarla V. Sindhu 19-21, 21-19, 21-18.
"At that time (13-7) I almost wanted to accept the defeat but then I thought that, I just changed my mind and then I didn't really make any mistakes from then on."
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