BIRMINGHAM: Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen and Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen will meet in the final of the All England Championships after taking contrasting routes through their last-four matches on Saturday.

World number seven Axelsen had to hit back to beat Malaysian world number 13 Lee Zii Jia 17-21, 21-13, 21-19 in a nerve breaking battle that lasted 73 minutes at Arena Birmingham.

Chou had an easier ride as his opponent, Denmark’s Anders Antonsen, retired while trailing 17-14 in the first game.

Axelsen is bidding to avenge last year’s final defeat against Kento Momota as he looks to build on his recent success at the Barcelona Masters and Indonesia Open.

“Chen’s shots from behind were sharp and it took some time for me to get used to it,” Okuhara said. “I fell before I expected. But I don’t think it was as bad as last year’s loss.”

“It was a really tough match. Lee made it really tough for me but I just tried to stay in there and do my best,” Axelsen said. “I managed to keep calm through to the end of the third game, but luck was also on my side as it could have gone either way.”

Antonsen retired 26 minutes into the other semi-final due to an injury, by rolling over his right ankle in an attempt to receive a deep push into the right back corner.

In the women’s singles semi-finals, Chinese world number one Chen Yu Fei beat Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara 21-14, 23-21 and Taiwan’s second-seeded Tai Tzu-ying defeated Spain’s Carolina Marin 19-21, 21-13, 21-11.

Indonesia’s Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianti beat Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith for a place in the mixed doubles final.

The 21-15, 21-23, 21-11 victory booked a showdown with Thailand’s Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai for the title.

Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota booked their place in the women’s doubles final against the Chinese pair of Du Yue and Li Yinhui with a 21-12, 21-12 win over Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo in an all-Japanese semi-final.

In the men’s doubles semi-finals, Japan’s Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe defeated Russia’s Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov 21-16, 21-15 to set up a gold-medal match against top seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2020