Xie, Lu meet in women's final
HYDERABAD, India -- Lin Dan and Xie Xingfang will play for their third world badminton titles in an all-Chinese final.
Defending champion Lin, who hadn't dropped a set his previous four matches, needed more than an hour Saturday to get past sixth-seeded Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia 21-14, 13-21, 21-15. Dwi Kuncoro knocked out Lin's rival, world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei, in Friday's quarterfinals.
In the other semifinal, second-seeded Chen Jin romped past fourth-seeded Taufik Hidayat 21-16, 21-6 in another Chinese-Indonesia showdown.
Hidayat, the former Olympic and world champion, had not dropped a game going into the semifinal before the 23-year-old Chen managed 11 smash winners to 1, and 13 net winners to 4.
Lin will try to add to his titles in 2006 and 2007, along with his Olympic gold medal in Beijing. Nicknamed Super Dan, he's dominated men's badminton for five years even though he slipped to No. 5 in the world entering this week.
Lin beat Chen in the Beijing semifinals, and they've split their last four matches. Chen won their final at the Hong Kong Open last November, then Lin won semifinal matches in March at the All England Open and Swiss Open. Chen won their most recent match in June, coming for a game down to win the quarterfinal at the Indonesian Open.
Xie breezed past eighth-seeded Pi Hongyang of France 21-18, 21-8 in 32 minutes, her fastest match of the tournament, and will meet compatriot Lu Lan, the No. 7 seed who beat No. 2 and teammate Wang Lin 21-18, 21-19.
Xie, the silver medalist in Beijing, is hoping to surpass former Chinese stars Li Lingwei, Han Aiping and Ye Zhaoying, who all have two women's world titles.
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press
