SINGAPORE: Chinese badminton superstar Lin Dan came through in three sets over Simon Santoso of Indonesia Friday to set up a Singapore Open semifinal date with Denmark's world No. 5 Peter Gade. The top Chinese men's player, ranked second in the world and known as Super Dan to his legions of fans, was made to work hard for his victory after he lost the first game 14-21 with Santoso refusing to be cowed by his opponent. Lin's renowned jumping smashes and deceptively quick reflexes at the net won him key points at crucial stages of the final two games, which he took 21-13 and 22-20 to secure a semifinal place against Gade. The veteran Dane had earlier won in two sets against China's Du Pengyu 21-15 and 21-15. Lin played too few events to make it to last season's finale and is hoping to make amends this year by qualifying for the season-ending tournament in December. The Singapore Open is the fifth leg of the 12-stop series with the top eight men's and women's singles players and doubles pairs qualifying for the end-of-year showpiece. In earlier matches, Chinese women's world No. 1 Wang Shixian overcame a tough challenge from German Juliane Schenk to advance to the semifinals. The reigning All-England champion showed her class and grit after losing the first set 17-21 to come through 21-15 and 22-20 in the last two sets. Wang won the second set when her served was judged wrongly by the German to be going out, taking the match to a third set thriller which was closely fought all the way to the end. The Chinese champion had to call on all her resources to stave off her spirited opponent with lightning fast smashes and drop shots to finally win the quarterfinal. The No. 1 seed took the final game to deuce at 20-20 with a winning smash after trapping Schenk at the net with a delicate drop shot, before sealing her victory with another irretrievable smash. Elsewhere in the men's tournament, rising young Chinese player Wang Zhengming beat reigning Danish world junior champion Viktor Axelsen in straight sets 21-15 21-10.
