Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - 13 March 2011
There was joy in the Malaysian camp at the All-England Badminton Championships in Birmingham, UK, yesterday when our shuttlers made it to the singles and doubles finals.
Defending champion and World no. 1, Lee Chong Wei defeated China's Chen Long 21-17, 21-13 in 46 minutes in the semi-final. Lee will now meet his nemesis Lin Dan, also of China, in the final.
This will be Lee's third consecutive All-England final. He will not have it easy though as Lin Dan has been equally impressive en route to the final. The three-time World Champion booked his place in the final with a 21-9, 16-21, 21-11 win over Marc Zwiebler yesterday.
There's more at stake for Lin Dan as if he wins on Sunday, he will become the first player of this era to win five All-England titles. Past meetings give him the edge over Lee as he has won 18 out of the 24 encounters against the Malaysian.
In the doubles, the Malaysian pair of Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong reached the final when they exacted sweet revenge on China’s Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng 21-11, 23-21. The Chinese had dashed the Malaysians’ hopes of becoming the first world champions after beating them in the final of the World Championships in Paris last year.
Koo and Tan, the 2007 All-England champions will meet Denmark’s Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen in Sunday's final. The Danes overcame another Chinese pair, Chai-Biao-Guo Zhengdong 26-24, 21-12 in the other semi-final to take a step closer to winning their maiden All-England title.
As we say in Malaysia, "Malaysia Boleh" (literally, "Malaysia Can") !