Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia outclassed Park Sung Hwan of South Korea 21-10,22-20 on Saturday to reach the final of the Badminton World Championships. The 2004 Olympic champion will chase a second world title against Chen Jin of China,who overcame European champion Peter Gade of Denmark 19-21,21-8,21-11. Park became a dark horse in the title race after knocking out defending champion Lin Dan of China in the quarterfinals,but the 16th-ranked South Korean suffered his eighth loss in as many matches against Hidayat. In womens singles,Lin Wang of China routed Tine Baun of Denmark 21-11,21-8 in the first semifinal. The former top-ranked Lin guaranteed China a gold medal since she will play either Wang Xin or Wang Shixian,who are both Chinese. Wang destroyed Bauns hopes of reaching the final by thrashing the Dane in straight games 21-11,21-8 in the semifinals. Baun was reduced to tears after the match as she struggled for words to describe possibly her worst defeat in a semifinal. Lin was just too good, she said. Wang was in complete control of the match from the first game when she took a 10-4 lead. Baun was uncharacteristically error-prone. The back court which is a strong point for the Dane became her biggest weakness as she made wrong judgments giving away points. Wang just kept pushing the level and at 19-11,there was no way the Dane could have made a come back in the first game. The Chinese number seven seed clinched the game at 21-11. Hopes of a comeback were sustained as Baun made Wang stretch a bit in the second game and kept pace till 5-6. But then the errors began and at 8-12 frustration crept into the tall Danish players game. Wang,meanwhile,started rotating her shot play and made full use of the court and used the smash to deadly effect. Trailing at 9-18,Tine finally threw in the towel and with two weak returns gave the match away to the rampaging Lin Wang 21-11,21-8. In the mixed doubles,Zheng Bo and Ma Jin made the finals after defeating South Koreas Ko Sung Hyun and Ha Eun Jung 15-21 21-11 21-16. They play Ho Hanbin and Yu Yang,who beat Lee Sheng Mu and Chien Yu Chin of Chinese Taipei 21-13,21.
