LIN DAN closed in on a seventh men’s singles title at the Badminton All-England Open championships when he reached the final with a 21-14, 13-21, 21-11 victory over Chinese compatriot Huang Yuxiang on Saturday.

If the 34-year-old beats another Chinese opponent, the seventh seeded Shi Yuqi, he will move to within one title of Rudy Hartono’s record eight All-England titles, although the Indonesian’s successes occurred before the Open era.

Lin is already assured of one record, though, after booking his place in a 10th All England final.

He was far from his brilliant best in Saturday’s semi-final, however, as the unseeded Huang took advantage of a temporary drop in Lin’s standard of play to take his illustrious opponent to a deciding game.

But Lin turned on the style again in the third game, with some clever changes of pace, and sudden penetrating attacks, exuding a confidence which suggested the result was never in doubt.

“I think I played quite well,” he said. “I did make some mistakes and that was one of the reasons why I lost the second game. But all my colleagues have been playing well here.

“I will try to continue what I am doing and I hope that tomorrow I will take a new record,” he said, referring to the Open era benchmark.

His opponent, Shi Yuqi, made sure there will be a Chinese winner when he beat Son Wan Ho, the fifth seeded Korean 21-17, 21-14, to reach the final for the second successive year.

On Friday, Lin overcame Lee Chong Wei from Malaysia 21-16, 21-17 in a 40th encounter between the badminton greats.

Chong Wei moved superbly as ever, tried to mix up the patterns, and led 16-15 in the first game and 13-10 in the second. Both times, however, Lin found something unusual, an explosive change of pace or a sudden smash, and when the death points came in each game he finished them immediately.

(SD-Agencies)