Top seed Lee Chong Wei takes on seventh seed Tian Houwei in the Men's singles quarter-final of 2017 All England Championships at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham on Friday.
The three-time champion has so far been untroubled in the ongoing tournament, decimating Brice Leverdez in the opening round after which he fended off a challenge (21-18, 21-18) from Taiwan's Tzu Wei Wang in the second round yesterday. On the other hand, last year's finalist Tian just needed 33 minutes to decimate India's HS Prannoy 21-13, 21-5 in his second-round clash.
Chong Wei, despite not fully recovering from a knee injury he suffered last month, was not willing to give up on what might possibly be his last shot at title and he has come up with his best so far.
With reigning Olympic champion Chen Long, who was expected to make things difficult for the Malaysian in a possible semi-final meeting, crashing out yesterday after loss to Thailan's Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk, the world number one should fancy his chances of making it to the title match this year. Chong Wei has played Tian only twice and the two shuttlers have shared honours with their last meeting at the at the 2015 Hong Kong Open ending in the former's favour.
Tian though has not been consistent in the recent past, including the entire last season. The world number six reached the title match of Dubai World Superseries Finals last year but faced a first-round exit at German Open last week losing to lower-ranked Kanta Tsuneyama in straight games.
Chong Wei will head into today's quarter-final as favourite but the focus will also be on his fitness when he takes on his younger opponent, who will be gearing up to go one step further this time around in Birmingham.
TV Schedule
Malaysia: AStro Supersport
China: LETV, GDTV
Taiwan: Sportcast
Thailand: True visions
Indonesia: Fox Sports
India: Star Sports
Australia: Fox Sports
Dubai: Dubai SPorts Channel
UK: BBC
Hong Kong: iCable, PCCW
US: One World Sport
Denmark: TV2
