Lee faces Lin Dan in mouth-watering Olympic semis

Chong Wei marches into the semi-finals and will take on Lin Dan of China.

The big clash between Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan is on.

The duo set up the semi-final clash at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in contrasting styles.

As expected, the 33-year-old world No. 1 Chong Wei outplayed Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-9, 21-15 at the Riocentre Pavilion 4 on Wednesday to set up a last-four showdown with two-time defending Olympic champion Lin Dan on Friday.

 

The China world No. 3 slogged to a 21-6, 11-21, 21-18 win over K. Srikanth of India in the other quarter-final.

“The pressure is on now. It’s the usual thing. Now, I just want to focus on my own game and think of nothing else. But I’m glad to reach my third Olympic semi-finals,” said Chong Wei after the 42-minute win.

“Our two wins in the doubles (mixed doubles and men’s doubles) have inspired me. I want to enjoy every moment of it as it could be my last Olympics.’

Cheered by a group of vociferous Malaysian fans, Chong Wei was just too crafty for world No. 7 Tien-chen.

The Taiwanese was tentative in both games and made a lot of mistakes, making life easy for Chong Wei as he streaked to a 5-0 head-to-head lead in their meetings.

In contrast, Lin Dan was pushed all the way by world No. 11 Srikanth in the hour-long match.

After the match, Lin Dan said the fans, especially the Malaysians, were very vocal.

“But it didn’t affect me. I managed to beat them,” said the 32-year-old Lin Dan, who defeated Chong Wei in both the finals in Beijing 2008 and London 2012.

The other semi-finals clash will be between Chen Long of China and Viktor Axelsen of Denmark. Axelsen defeated Rajiv Ouseph of England 21-21, 21-16 in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.