He scored a comfortable 21-14, 21-14 victory over fellow Chinese Bao Chunlai.

His opponent today will be compatriot Chen Jin. The fourth seed beat second seed Lee Chong Wei 21-18, 21-18.

The top-seeded Lin - who won in 2004, 2006 and 2007 - produced a devastating spell midway in the first game when he trailed 12-14.

But he captured 10 points in succession to take control.

Third seed Bao managed to pull back from 2-9 down in the second game to a more-respectable 6-12, but Lin eased home.

Chen, winner of last year's Swiss Open, will be making his first All England final appearance, after ousting the in-form Lee.

The Malaysian former world No1 had started favourite after beating Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat in the quarter-finals on Friday.

Lee made the early running, but lost the advantage midway through the first game and struggled after that.

He managed to save three match points from 15-20 down in the second game, but finally succumbed to a powerful smash.

Lee, who now heads for next week's Swiss Open, said: 'I didn't play well at all today. I was very slow. I don't know why. I'm very disappointed.'

In the women's final, third seed Lu Lan will fly the flag for China, after beating No7 Xu Huaiwen of Germany 21-13, 21-14.

She will meet the Dane Tine Rasmussen, who beat world champion Zhu Lin earlier in the week and South Korea's Hwang Hye Youn 21-17, 21-18 yesterday.

South Korea's Jung Jae Sung and Lee Yong Dae survived five match points to reach the men's doubles final.

The sixth seeds, after forcing the rubber, fought from 16-20 down to 20-20 against Choong Tan Fook and Lee Wan Wah.

And, on their first match point, they finished the job for a thrilling 13-21, 24-22, 23-21 win over the Malaysians.

Reuters