WORLD No 2 Lee Chong Wei's dream of reaching the All England final was shattered by China's Chen Jin at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham yesterday.
Chong Wei, the second seed, was not the composed player he normally is and allowed Chen Jin to dictate terms and eventually lost 21-18, 21-18 in 43 minutes.
Chong Wei had reached the semi-finals in 2005 and 2006 and the shuttler was looking forward to making the final this time.
While Chong Wei was in top form against Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia in the quarter-finals on Friday, the Malaysian was off-colour against Chen Jin in the semi-finals.
Chen Jin went on the offensive from the beginning but Chong Wei, a deceptive player who can dictate the pace of the game, was sluggish.
His performance was filled with uncharacteristic errors and this allowed Chen Jin to close out the first game 21-18.
Chong Wei was forced to play catch up in the second game and although he showed his brilliance in patches, it became evident it was not to be the Malaysian's day.
Chong Wei made a last ditch effort when Chen Jin led 20-15 but all he could do was reduce the gap to 18-20.
Chen Jin ended the next rally with a stinging smash to make today's final an all-China affair.
World No 1 Lin Dan easily beat compatriot Bao Chunlai 21-14, 21-14.
In the women's singles, Lu Lan of China advanced to the final after beating Xu Huaiwen of Germany 21-13, 21-14.
She will either meet Tine Rasmussen of Denmark or Hwang Hye Youn of South Korea in the final today.
Results - (All s-finals) Men's singles: Chen Jin (Chn) bt Lee Chong Wei (Mas) 21-18, 21-18, Lin Dan (Chn) bt Bao Chunlai (Chn) 21-14, 21-14.
Doubles: Jung Jae Sung-Lee Yong Dae (Kor) bt Choong Tan Fook-Lee Wan Wah (Mas) 21-13, 22-24, 23-21, Hwang Ji Man-Lee Jae Jin (Kor) bt Shintaro Ikeda-Shuichi Sakamoto 21-16, 21-16.
Women's singles: Lu Lan (Chn) bt Xu Huaiwen (Ger) 21-13, 21-14, Tine Rasmussen (Den) bt Hwang Hye Youn 21-17, 21-18.
Women's doubles: Lee Hyo Jung-Lee Kyung Won (Kor) bt Yang Wei-Zhang Jiewen (Chn) 13-21, 21-13, 21-19, Jing Du-Yang Yu (Chn) bt Wei Yili-Zhang Yawen (Chn) 21-16, 21-9.
Mixed doubles: Zheng Bo-Gao Ling (Chn) bt Xie Zhongbo-Zhang Yawen (Chn) 16-21, 21-6 rtd, Nova Widianto-Liliyana Natsir (Ind) bt Nathan Robertson-Gail Emms (Eng) 21-18, 21-15.
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