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China's Lin Dan beats Jorgensen to meet teammate Xue at All England semis

Xinhua, March 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

Five times champion Lin Dan fought back from one set down to beat third seed Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark in the quarterfinals of the All England badminton championships here on Friday.

Lin, nicknamed Super Dan by the fans, witnessed a lopsided first set, losing 21-10 in front of a dominant Jorgensen, who defeated him at last year's world championships in Jakatar.

"It reminded me of the world championships defeat," Lin said after the match. "I will not let that happen again."

He adjusted his tactics and the fans suddenly saw a different Lin Dan, who won the next two sets 21-9, 21-15.

"I don't know why I played so badly in the first set, but my adjustment proved successful," he said.

After last year's defeat, Lin said that he studied videos of Jorgensen and tried hard to learn the lessons.

"I also made very good preparations for this match," he said.

Lin, a five-time world champion and twice Olympic gold medalist, will fight for the final place against teammate Xue Song, who labored to beat another Dane Viktor Axelsen 21-19, 23-25, 21-11.

"We are very familiar with each other," Lin said of the 22-year-old Xue. "He played extremely well this time. But I will try my best."

In the bottom half of the draw, Kento Momota's bid to become Japan's first men's winner came to an end against another Chinese player Tian Houwei.

Tian's 19-21, 21-15, 21-16 victory over 80 minutes kept alive his bid of qualifying for the Olympic Games. He is only two places behind Lin in the Race to Rio standings and if he wins through to Sunday's final it will ratchet up the tension somewhat.

However China's bid to win all five titles for the first time since 2009 came to an end as they failed to field a semifinalist in the men's doubles.

In the women's singles, top seed Carolina Marin of Spain overcame fourth-ranked Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand for the first time in five matches to keep the defence of her title in tact.

In a match between China's former champions, 2014 winner Wang Shixian defeated Li Xuerui. She will play unseeded Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, who ousted India's second-ranked Saina Nehwal 21-15, 21-16. Endit