China to meet South Korea in Sudriman Cup final

China's Chen Long plays a shot during the men's singles match against Denmark's Jan Jorgensen during the semi-finals of the Sudirman Cup World Team Badminton Championships in Kuala Lumpur May 25, 2013.??[Photo/Agencies]

KUALA LUMPUR - China and South Korea will meet in Sunday's final of the 13th Sudirman Cup after the two East Asia teams won their semifinals here on Saturday.

China beat 2011 Sudirman Cup runner-up Denmark 3-1 to reach its 10th consecutive tournament final. They won eight titles in the previous nine finals and the only loss was to South Korea in 2003.

Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei replaced Xu Chen/Ma Jin to play in mixed doubles and easily smashed Joachim Fischer Nielsen/Christinna Pedersen with 21-15, 21-12. The victory helped Zhang/Zhao to improve their head-to-head record against the Danish pair to 6-6.

Chen Long showed his dominance once again in men's singles as he took 49 minutes to beat world's No.7 Jan Jorgensen 21-16, 21-16.

"It is a tougher match than the score talks," said Chen. "We played many times and it was hard to play against Jorgensen. I got fully prepared yesterday and I'm happy to take a point for the team."

Former world No.1 pair Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng lost their second men's doubles match in three days to Carsten Mogensen/Mathias Boe, who is now top-ranked. The Chinese veterans also lost to Rian Agung Saputro/Angga Pratama of Indonesia in Thursday's quarterfinals.

"Cai and Fu had experiences and they got a better record against Mogensen and Boe. That's why we decided to put them in the lineups," said Li Yongbo, head coach of the Chinese team. "Unfortunately they had a poor performance tonight but it's normal. We have thought about this situation."

Olympic champion Li Xuerui secured China's meeting with South Korea after beating Line Kjaersfeldt in two straight games. Kjaersfeldt, who only ranked 79th, barely caused troubles to reigning world's No.1 and quickly lost the women's singles at 13-21, 9-21.

Three-time champion South Korea defeated Thailand 3-1 to reach its seventh Sudirman Cup final. Ko Sung Hyun/Kim Ha Na beat Sudket Prapakamol/Saralee Thoungthongkam 21-18, 21-19 in the mixed doubles before Boonsak Ponsana leveled the score for Thailand as the world No.8 player easily passed Lee Dong Keun at 21-9, 21-12.

South Korea took the lead again after world number two Ko Sung Hyun/Lee Yong Dae won the men's doubles, beating Maneepong Jongjit/Nipitphon 21-12, 21-11 in 34 minutes.H ? Sung Ji Hyun secured South Korea's berth in final as she marched on to beat Ratchanok Inthanon 21-17, 21-14 in women's singles.

South Korea has made it into the Sudirman Cup final six times and lost half of those, once to Indonesia in 1989 and twice to eight-time winner China in 1997 and 2009. South Korea won the second most Sudirman Cup, three to China's eight.