Badminton great Lin Dan eased into the All England Open semifinals by dispatching former Olympic and world champion Taufik Hidayat 21-18, 21-8 Friday. Lin stayed on top of a tight first game until at 17-17 Hidayat netted twice. Another shuttle into the net by Hidayat conceded the 27-minute game, and when Lin reeled off a 9-0 lead to start the second, all tension drained from the quarterfinal. He was later joined in the semifinals by a fellow left-hander Lee Hyun-Il, who overcame a surprise survivor, the Malaysian qualifier Daren Liew, 21-15, 21-13. On the women's side, Li Xuerui, the next great Chinese player who moved up to a career-high No. 5 ranking Thursday, eliminated No. 4 Saina Nehwal of India 21-13, 23-21 to reach her first All England semifinals at her second attempt. Li will face another rising star in Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan, who beat the only other unseeded quarterfinalist, Sung Ji-hyun of South Korea, 20-22, 21-14, 21-14. On Thursday, champion Lee Chong Wei survived a minor second-round wobble to beat Dane Hans-Kristian Vittinghus 23-21, 21-18. Second seed Lin had less trouble disposing of Malaysian Chong Wei Feng 21-13, 21-16. Organizers managed to wrap up proceedings by 2325 local time(GMT) to avoid a repeat of day one which over-ran to nearly 17 hours with England's Rajiv Ouseph ousting Denmark's fourth seed Peter Gade at 0220 local time. On Thursday, the late finish looked to have caught up with Ouseph who went out to Malaysia's Daren Liew 21-15, 21-10. The top seed in the women's singles, Wang Yihan, reached the quarterfinals comfortably and earned a repeat of the All-England finals of 2009 and 2010. The Chinese player was a 21-13, 21-12 winner against her compatriot Liu Xin, which means she now plays Denmark's Tine Baun, to whom she lost the year before last but beat three years ago. Baun showed no signs of her hip problem and was forceful and dominating in a 21-9, 21-17 win over Ai Goto, the world No. 22 from Japan. Earlier another Wang also become involved in a repeat of an All-England final. This saw the titleholder from China, Wang Shixian, repeat last year's win over Eriko Hirose, the determined, athletic Japanese player, by 21-10, 21-19.
