Birmingham: The last time World No. 13 Lee Zii Jia and World No. 7 Viktor Axelsen squared off, it was during the 2019 Korea Open second round, where Lee ultimately prevailed over Axelsen 21-18, 21-16.
On Saturday, they will meet again for a spot in the 2020 All England final as both have defeated their respective opponents in the quarter-finals.
Lee who won the 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medal, completed a remarkable match on Friday against China’s Rio Olympic champion Chen Long, by taking out the World No. 5 player 21-12, 21-18 in 49 minutes.
The 21-year-old Lee had previously eliminated No. 6 seed Jonatan Christie of Indonesia and China’s Lu Guangzu to advance to the quarter-finals.
“This was the fourth time I’ve played against Chen Long. All our previous three encounters were very close, we were playing until 3-setters in all those matches,” said Lee.
“We were familiar with each other’s playing style, but I made fewer mistakes this time,” added Lee.
Chen praised his young opponent after the match.
“He was more focused and more patient,” said Chen Long after the match.
In another men’s singles match, No. 2 seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark dominated the match to power past No. 7 seed Shi Yuqi 21-15, 21-7 in 40 minutes.
Men’s singles No. 1 seed Chou Tien Chen and No. 5 seed Anders Antonsen will battle each other in another semi-final.
In men’s doubles competition, World No. 1 pair Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia fought off a strong challenge from World No. 10 Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik 21-17, 21-19 to set up semi-final meeting with World No. 7 Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin of Taiwan.
The women’s singles competition saw No. 4 seed Nozomi Okuhara made an astonishing comeback to beat No. 6 seed PV Sindhu 12-21, 21-15, 21-13 in 68 minutes. Okuhara will play No. 1 seed Chen Yufei on Saturday.
Meanwhile, No. 8 seed Carolina Marin will take on No. 2 seed Tai Tzu Ying for a spot in the women’s singles final.
