D

efending champions Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir salvaged Indonesia'€™s otherwise complete rout at the All England badminton championship by reaching the finals in their pursuit of a fourth title in a row.

The Indonesians beat Joachim Fischer Nielsen/Christina Pedersen of Denmark 21-17, 21-11 in the semifinal match at Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham, England, on Saturday.

The fourth seeds at the tournament will take on top seeds Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei in the final, which is a repeat of last year'€™s showdown.

It will be their 11th meeting, with the previous matches tied at 5-5.

Tontowi/Liliyana'€™s success provides a reprieve to the Indonesian team, which came to the tournament with 24 individuals and pairs but only four pairs remained by the time the tournament reached the quarterfinals.

Indonesia had a chance to have two representatives in the finals, but Praveen Jordan/Debby Susanton failed in their attempt.

Praveen/Debby secured their semifinal ticket with a 21-17, 21-17 win over Mads Pieler Kolding/Kamilla Rytter Juhl of Denmark, but they later came up against the world'€™s strongest pairing in Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei.

The Chinese proved too strong and left the Indonesian pair trailing in points throughout the game. As match statistics show, Praveen and Debby took the lead only early in the opening game as Zhang and Zhao displayed a commanding play to wrap up the match 21-15, 21-10 in 41 minutes.

The other pairs fell short of reaching the semifinals.

Greysia Polii/Nitya Krishinda Maheswari lost 19-21, 21-13, 11-21 to Tang Jinhua/Zhong Qianxin, who ensured that all four places in the semifinals were occupied by Chinese pairs.

Greysia appeared to not be up to the opponents'€™ abrupt change in game plan.

'€œIn the third game, they changed strategy. They did not attack us straight away, but hit the ball around before coming with the attacks when we were out of position,'€ Greysia said.

'€œThis is something for us to evaluate as to what we should do in such a situation,'€ she said in a press release from the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI).

Coming to the tournament at the backdrop of their success in winning the Asian Games gold in Incheon in September, they had been upbeat about reaching the semifinals.

'€œWe had expected to go beyond the quarterfinals, but we were beaten in the third game,'€ said Nitya.

In the men'€™s doubles, Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo went down to Mads Conrad-Petersen/Mads Pieler Kolding of Denmark also in three games, 11-21, 21-10, 13-21.

The final matches will be held on Sunday.

In the women'€™s singles, Carolina Marin will have a chance to top off her World Championship title with an All England laurel after defeating Chinese Taipei'€™s Tai Tzu Ying 21-18, 21-11. Marin was the first Spaniard and third female European player to win the World Championship in 2014 after Lene Koppen in 1977 and Camilla Martin in 1999.

In the final, she will face Saina Nehwal, an Indian proving to be a nemesis to Chinese players. After Wang Yihan, Sun Yu was her latest victim, whom she beat 21-13, 21-13 on Saturday.

It will be only the second time in two decades for the women'€™s singles final at All England not to feature a Chinese player. The other occasion was in 2013, when Tine Rasmussen of Denmark won her title over Thai Ratchanok Inthanon.

The men'€™s singles final will be a battle between the tournament'€™s top two seeds, with Chinese Chen Long taking on Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark.

Chen overcame countryman and senior Lin Dan 21-13, 21-12 while Jorgensen brushed aside Sho Sasaki of Japan 21-11, 21-12.