China's Lin Dan beats teammate Xue to reach All England finals

Five times champion Lin Dan of China fought back from one set down to defeat teammate Xue Song in the semifinals of the All England Open badminton championships here on Saturday.

Lin, also a five times world champion and double Olympic gold medalist, wasted his early advantage in the first set, dropping to the 22-year-old Xue 18-21.

But the 33-year-old, who had already secured two consecutive three-set victories in the previous rounds, won the second 21-15 and went ahead 10-4 in the third 10-4 when Xue suffered a cramp to his right foot.

Lin, nicknamed Super Dan by his fans, then met little challenge and sealed the victory 21-9.

"I don't why I lost the first match," Lin said after the match. "Xue played very well today, even after the injury."

Lin, who also won the German Open last week, was satisfied with his performance this season.

"It shows that my training during the winter is very good," he said.

But he warned that the fight for a place in the star-studded Chinese team is not over.

"There are so many great players in the Chinese team. The qualification will never be naturally awarded to you just because you are Lin Dan. You have to fight for it."

Lin will meet either teammate Tian Houwei or Denmark's Hans-Kristian Vittinghus on Sunday for a sixth All England title.

In the women's semifinal, seventh seed Wang Shixian, the 2014 winner, beat Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei 21-23, 21-12, 21-15.

She will fight for the title against the winner between world champion and top seed Carolina Marin of Spain and Japan's eighth seed Nozomi Okuhara, which will be played later. Enditem