Chinese hopeful Chen Long ousted the fourth seed Peter Hoeg Gade in straight games on Friday, reaching the men's singles semifinals at the All England Open Badminton Championships.

Chen, 22, played upper hand in his fourth clash with the long- time European top playing, knocking the 34-year-old Dane 21-12, 21- 12.

"I was desperate to win over him as I just lost to him recently, " said Chen, who improved his head-to-head against Gade to 2-2. "I thought Gade was not in form and I just grabbed the chance."

The fifth seed Chen will meet the world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei on Saturday as the defending champion easily past Thailand's eighth seed Boonsak Ponsana 21-15, 21-7.

The Olympic and four-time world champion Lin Dan also romped into the men's singles semifinals as he sent off the seventh seed Nguyen Tien Minh from Vietnam, 21-17, 21-11.

Lin's next opponent is Marc Zwiebler, who knocked out Japanese Kazushi Yamada 21-18, 17-21 and 21-15 earlier.

The German top player unheraldedly beat reigning world champion Chen Jin in the quarterfinals on Thursday.