KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s badminton maestro Lee Chong Wei stormed through to the finals of the Malaysian Open, after defeating Denmark’s Jan O Jorgensen in a semi-final match on Saturday.
The world number four shuttler, who beat Jorgensen 21-7, 21-14, will face off against world number one Chen Long from China in Sunday’s final.
Lee, who suffered early exits in the All England Championships and India Open in March, was back in fine form against Jorgensen, using his signature overhead smashes and nifty netplay to wrap up the encounter in 35 minutes.
“I am looking forward to winning my 11th (Malaysian Open) title here. My confidence and court feeling gets better with each game, and I am now only one more game away from the title,” said Lee.
“I have to be patient against him (Chen Long) and can’t be constantly on the attack. He is a tall player and has good court coverage, but I will have the backing of home support to hopefully see me over the finish line.” Lee had missed last year’s edition because of a suspension after testing positive for dexamethasone, a banned anti-inflammatory, at the world championships in Copenhagen in 2014.
But in April last year the Badminton World Federation said Lee had “accidentally” ingested the banned substance and handed him an eight-month backdated ban, which effectively cleared him to resume his career.
Meanwhile, defending champion Chen Long from China admitted he was fortunate in his semi-final encounter against Indonesia’s rising star Jonatan Christie, after defeating the 18-year-old, 8-21, 21-19, 21-14.
“I am lucky to have made the final. If he didn’t commit the crucial mistakes in the second game, it would have been a different story. The final will be the home crowd against me, but I am hoping they appreciate my game when I play him (Lee Chong Wei) in the final,” said Chen.
