Jakarta: World No. 2 Lee Chong Wei is set to regain his World No. 1 Badminton World Federation (BWF) ranking after reaching the men’s singles final of the BCA Indonesia Open 2016 at the Istora Senayan in Jakarta on Saturday.
Playing against homester Ihsan Maulana Mustofa in the Indonesia semi-final, Lee Chong Wei quickly raced out to a huge lead at 14-4, 19-7 in the first set to wrap up the first game 21-9 with a powerful smash.
The game turned into a see-saw battle with the score tied at 15-15, 17-17 after Maulana found a better rhythm and received great support from the home crowd in the second set. Nevertheless, Lee responded with a great show of brilliance, and iron-willed resilience to finally edge past the Indonesia youngster 21-18 in a match that lasted 39 minutes.
Lee will meet Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark in the final on Sunday. Jorgensen was coming off an exhausting three-set win over Tian Houwei of China in other men’s singles semi-final as he beat the Chinese shuttler 21-14, 18-21, 21-17 in 69 minutes.
The World No. 2 Lee Chong Wei is currently just 3,241 points shy from World No. 1 Chen Long’s 92,194 points in the BWF rankings. Lee is guaranteed a minimum of 9,350 points as runner-up or 11,000 points if he wins his sixth Indonesia Open title.
In men’s doubles, World No. 1 Lee Yong Dae/Yoo Yeon Seong of Korea will set up a clash with Chinese pair No. 5 seeds Chai Biao/Hong Wei in the final. The No. 1 seeds South Koreans saw off Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark 21-16, 21-14 in the semi-finals while Chai Biao/Hong Wei halted another Denmark pair Mads Conrad-Petersen/Mads Pieler Kolding with an 18-21, 21-16, 21-14 semi-final win in 66 minutes.