World No. 2 Lee Chong Wei fought through the pain barrier to reach his third successive Super Series final at the Hong Kong Open yesterday.
Despite damaged left knee tendons, the Malaysian stormed past Danish eighth seed Kenneth Jonassen 21-13, 21-17 to move just one match from his fifth title this season.
"It was quite painful when I played today," he said. "I just tried my best. I couldn't move very well on the right side of the court."
Lee, who plays with painkillers and iced his knee after the match, showed no sign of discomfort as he raced to a comfortable one-game lead.
But he was forced to come from behind in the second before his lightning racquet speed and ability overcame the workmanlike Dane.
"Kenneth made some simple mistakes when he was leading and let me back in the game," Lee said. "Tomorrow I'll do my best -- it's the last match of the year."
In today's final, Lee, who won in France and lost last week's China Open final after suffering the injury in Denmark, will face either top-ranked Lin Dan or fellow Chinese Chen Jin, who were due to play later yesterday.
Meanwhile, women's No. 1 Xie Xingfang stormed past Chinese team-mate Lu Lan 21-8, 21-10 in a surprisingly one-sided semi-final that lasted just 26 minutes.
China's leading men's doubles pair, Fu Haifeng and Cai Yu, were soundly beaten 21-15, 21-12 by Indonesia's Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan.
Top-ranked mixed doubles team Zheng Bo and Gao Ling were awarded their semi-final against fellow Chinese Xie Zhongbo and Zhang Yawen on a walkover.
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