AFP/Birmingham

Lee beat the surprise survivor, Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk of Thailand, by 22-20, 21-8 to reach his fifth final.

Lee had been so disappointed by his patchy quarter-final performance that he said he wanted to forget it, but now in the second game his control, containment, and brilliantly timed counter-attacks were of the highest order.

“I came on to court a little bit nervous because I knew he had been playing very well,” said Lee of an opponent ranked outside the top 30 who had come all the way through the qualifying competition.

“There was a lot of pressure. But I feel sharp because I didn’t play in Germany and instead concentrated on preparing for the All-England.

“I trained just for the All-England. I have to do things like that more and more because I’m getting a little older and I don’t  want to get slower.”

Lee did struggled for a while however. He was 5-9 down against an impressively positive opponent who attacked freely and made some good strikes with his angular left-handed overheads.

Saensomboonsuk also came back from 12-15 to lead 19-18 and made it a tight finish to the very important second game.

After Lee had secured it, at the second attempt with a tight block to the net which caused the Thai qualifier to push the shuttle wide, he relaxed and played much better.

Soon he was 11-3 and 16-5 up, beautifully parrying all Saensomboonsuk’s thrusts with mid-court blocks or flicked lifts, and if he received a short clear, or anything loose in return, he pounced immediately to make a sudden winner.

With this he increasingly trapped his opponent in a web of deft containment, and making him work harder and harder for increasingly little reward.

“I had a bad shoulder when I played the last All-England final,” said a happy-looking Lee, referring to the loss of his title to Lin Dan last year. “But this time it feels okay and I hope I can do better.”

He was due to play the winner of Chen Long, the second seeded Chinese player and Jan Jorgensen, the unseeded Dane.

Later another Thai player did reach a singles final. This was Ratchanok Intanon, who at the age of 18 became the first women’s singles player from her country ever to reach an All-England final and the first of either sex for 50 years.

Intanon did that by winning 21-15, 21-19 against Saina Nehwal, the second seeded Indian who had become the tournament favourite since the first day defeat of Olympic champ[ion Li Xuerui.

Intanon attacked freely, scored well from the middle of the first game onwards, and was able to impose her game for much of the match on her rather muted opponent.

Nehwal, who set out to contain and to rally, looked burdened with expectations, and her state of mind was revealed in one disoriented moment at 15-18 down when she unaccountably let a high serve drop towards the floor.

At the last moment she changed her mind and tried a panicky swipe, but the return only set up an easy thumping kill for Intanon at the net.

Nehwal nevertheless fought very hard and pulled back a five-point deficit to one at 20-19 in the second game. But then she undid all the good work with a little net shot which failed to go over as Intanon took the concluding rally into the forecourt.