Wong Choon-hann became the first Malaysian to reach a world badminton championship final Saturday.
Wong beat South Korean Shon Seung-mo in the semifinals, but will need to overcome nemesis Xia Xuanze to lift the trophy Sunday.
The women's final will be an all-China matchup, with Gong Ruina defending her title against second-seeded Zhang Ning at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.
The world championships are the main qualification event for next year's Athens Olympics. The event was postponed from its original dates in May because of the SARS virus. More than 320 athletes from 44 countries have competed in the week long event which finishes Sunday.
Before Wong, no Malaysian singles player had progressed past the quarterfinals of the worlds. Wong beat Shon 15-4, 15-5 in Saturday's semi, but trails Xia 7-0 in previous meetings.
"I'm delighted and happy to be able to achieve this win," ninth-seeded Wong said. "To get this result so far is overwhelming for me."
Shon beat top-seeded Chinese Chen Hong in a tough three game match late Friday and his tiredness showed Saturday.
It took 12 minutes in the first game for him to register a point, when Wong returned wide, at 12-1.
Shon had difficulty moving around the court, giving Wong the opportunity for well placed winners.
"I think he was exhausted and also I feel his legs are causing him a bit of problem, he wasn't moving that fluid," Wong said.
Wong lost to Xia most recently in the final of the China Open in 2001 and in the quarterfinals of the Sydney Olympic Games.
Xia beat 20-year-old unseeded Bao 15-11, 15-7 in the first meeting between the pair.
"Tomorrow will be a tough match," Xia said. "Wong Choong Hann is a difficult opponent so I will have to play my best to beat him."
Xia was always in control of his semifinal, forcing Bao to chase down his shots. He won with an overhead smash and applauded the crowd with his racket.
Fourth-seeded Gong beat compatriot Zhou Mi in the semifinals taking 32 minutes to win 11-2, 11-4.
Zhou had the edge on head-to-heads coming into the semifinal, leading 9-8. But she struggled throughout to cope with Gong's well placed shots.
Gong won seven points in a row to win the first game, but both players had difficulty keeping serve in the second. Gong took a 4-1 lead, pulled away to 7-3 then 10-4 before winning when Zhou put an overhead shot into the net.
Zhang needed only 19 minutes to dispatch Mia Audina Tjiptawan of the Netherlands 11-7, 11-0 to reach her fifth final this year. Audina Tjiptawan only held serve once in the second game, at 5-0. While Audina Tjiptawan has won the Korean and Dutch Opens this year, Zhang has lost all four of her previous finals in 2003. The doubles finalists were also decided Saturday.
Danes Lars Paaske and Jonas Rasmussen play Sigit Budiarto and Candra Wijaya of Indonesia in the men's final Sunday and South Korea's Kim Dong-moon and Ra Kyung-min face Zhang Jun and Gao Ling of China in the mixed. Gao teams up with Huang Sui to play the women's doubles final against top seeded compatriots Wei Yili and Zhao Tingting.
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