World and Olympic champion Lin Dan of China lost his All England title Friday when he was downed 21-16, 18-21, 21-17 by sixth-seeded compatriot Bao Chunlai. Lin has contested the last six All England finals, winning four of them, but he had no answer to his fellow left-hander. Bao's opponent in Saturday's semifinals is unseeded Japanese Kenichi Tago who ousted third seed Chen Jin of China, 2008 champion, 22-20 19-21 21-13. Earlier, Tine Rasmussen, the former All-England champion whose career has been threatened by injury, served notice of her desire to regain the title by saving three match points to beat Lu Lan, the world champion, 16-21, 23-21, 21-11, and reach the semifinals. The victory brought memories of the Dane's triumph over the Chinese player in the 2008 final, but it looked as though it might be over when Rasmussen went 18-20 down in the second game, having lost the first. It was in those moments that the 30-year-old unseeded player found the courage to survive, just as she had in last year's semi-finals from match point down against Jiang Yanjiao. And having done so, it gave Rasmussen the inspiration to arrive earlier to meet the shuttle, to reduce the errors, and get the first telling blow into the rally a little more often. On the first match point Rasmussen produced a good overhead drop, which made Lu lift the shuttle wide, on the second she again got the shuttle tight to the net, inducing a lifting error, and on the third at 21-20 under pressure she found a superb backhand block which went for a down-the-line winner. Asked how she had managed to save them, Rasmussen said: “I just let go. I was thinking to make her win her own point, and if I lost I would still not be angry because I did just the best I could do.” Instead in the final game she was as completely on top as she had been under the cosh early in the match, when she went 3-12 down and looked flimsy, careworn, and shackled. It was hard to recognise Rasmussen as the same player when she was striding to victory in the third game, 5-1 and 10-2 up in no time, bristling with freshly re-discovered self-belief, fire in her eyes and quite unstoppable. “It showed me that I play my best I always have a chance of winning,” said Rasmussen, who plays Saina Nehwal, the seventh seeded Indian who won 21-8, 21-14 against Juliana Schenk of Germany.
