Gade sets up All England final with Lin

Gade sets up All England final with Lin

Reuters, Birmingham, England

Denmark's Peter Gade breezed into the All England badminton men's
singles final with a convincing 15-9 15-9 victory over
Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat on Saturday.

Gade's opponent on Sunday will be top seed and world number
one Lin Dan of China, who ousted Singapore's Ronald Susilo 15-6
15-10 in their semi-final.

Gade's match was a repeat of the 1999 final when the Dane was
at his peak before a serious knee injury blew him off course in
2001 and off the top of the world rankings.

But the 27-year-old has proved all week he is getting back to
his best and, with the Olympics just round the corner, his
comeback could not be better timed.

He knows that his 20-year-old Chinese opponent in what should
be a showpiece final is a tough customer. "Lin Dan is playing
some tremendous badminton and I have got a lot of respect for
him," said Gade, still the golden boy of Danish badminton.

The 12th seed trailed 3-0 in the first set but then raced 8-3
clear and was generally in control after that. Hidayat, seeded
16, took an 8-6 lead in the second but Gade soon restored order
with some fine smashing. Three lucky net cords also helped but
Hidayat did his cause no good with some poor serving.

Lin raced through the first set against 14th-seed Susilo but
surprisingly trailed 8-1 in the second. A 50-shot rally which
ended in the Chinese player's favor with the score at 8-5 proved
a turning point.

Lin clawed his way back to 10-10 and then eased his way to
victory, class beginning to ooze from virtually every shot.

The women's final, as usual, will be an all-Chinese affair.
Titleholder Zhou Mi battled past world champion Zhang Ning 11-4
10-13 11-4 to make their head-to-heads 11-1 in Zhou's favor. In
the other semi, top seed Gong Ruina beat Dutchwoman Mia Audina
Tjiptawan 11-7 11-3.