Lin Dan hails defeated Hidayat

Lin Dan reached the semi-finals of the All-England Open for the eighth time in nine years on Friday and paid tribute to his departing opponent, Taufik Hidayat. The Olympic and World champion from China beat the former Olympic and world champion from Indonesia 21-18, 21-8, and looked more than good enough to become the first player of the open era to win the All-England men's singles five times. Lin got well on top after a tight first game against a retiring fellow legend who has probably played his last All-England. "Taufik has given a lot of happiness and we are grateful to him," he said of Hidayat. "He is one of the greatest and I really admire him, but unfortunately we can't avoid things like retirement," added Lin, who had been thinking of stopping himself at the London Olympics but now says he may go on. The most impressive things on Friday were Lin's superbly balanced movement, even under the greatest pressure, his ability to put the shuttle in the four corners, and the speed with which he struck when he saw an opening. He was later joined in the semi-finals by a fellow left-hander Lee Hyun-Il, who overcame a surprise survivor, the Malaysian qualifier Daren Liew, 21-15, 21-13. The Korean was expecting a semi-final against another Malaysian, Lee Chong Wei, the defending champion. Earlier there was an unexpected Chinese player into the semi-finals of the women's singles, an event already dominated by the sport's most powerful nation. That was Li Xuerui, a 21-year-old from Chongqing, who caused a minor upset to the seedings by ending the hopes of Saina Nehwal, the Commonwealth Games champion from India. The seventh-seeded player beat the fourth seeded by 21-13, 23-21 which means that Nehwal has yet to reach the final of the traditional event which has plenty of cache in India. Li was extremely skilful and inventive, and difficult to contain when she was attacking. Nehwal did that better in the second game by taking the initiative more herself, reaching game point at 21-10. But Li saved that with a perfect tumbling net shot after Nehwal had pushed the shuttle three times in a row to that area, perhaps enabling the Chinese player to take the shuttle high and early for the winning shot. "It was very hard and I was pleased with my performance," said Li, who won the German Open last week and now has a great chance of reaching the biggest final of her career so far. She next plays Tai Tzu Ying, the world number 16 from Taiwan, who outlasted the Korean giant-killer Sung Ji-Hyun. Sung scored a first round win over Wang Xin, the second-seeded Asian Games winner from China, and looked capable of going further still when she recovered spectacularly from 16-20 down in the first game against Tai. She took six points in a row to snatch the game and leave Tai looking frustrated. But the Taiwanese player's movement and consistency imposed themselves increasingly from 11-11 onwards in the second game and she eventually won with something to spare.