Reigning Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat staged a stirring comeback to defeat second-seed Kenneth Jonassen in a men's singles quarter-final at the world badminton championships in Anaheim, California, on Friday.
The Indonesian number six seed lost the first game 15-3 to the Dane and made a slow start to the second before rallying to clinch it 15-10.
He won the decisive third game 15-7.
Hidayat will meet fifth seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in the semi-finals. Lee easily defeated fourth seed Bao Chunlai of China 15-5, 15-7.
"I'm not one to give up easily and I want to make it as far as I can. I need to prove that I'm not just the 'jaguh kampung' [hometown hero] just because I always win on home ground and not elsewhere," Lee said after his win.
Lee said he surprised his opponent by playing a fast game.
"I feel like I couldn't keep up with the speed of his game. He was very fast," Bao told reporters after the game.
Top seed Lin Dan survived a scare, losing the first game to 13th seed Lee Hyun-il of South Korea before recovering to win 5-15, 15-7, 15-8 to set up a semi-final clash with third seed Peter Gade of Denmark.
Gade beat China's Chen Hong 15-13, 15-4 earlier in the day.
"I think I will beat Lin Dan in the next one," Gade told reporters. "It will be tough but I am ready.
"Lin Dan is very good, he's been dominating for the last one and a half years. I've come close before and maybe tomorrow will be the day."
In the women's singles, sixth seed Xu Huaiwen of Germany overwhelmed third seed Pi Hongyan of France 11-3, 11-2.
"I was surprised it was an easy game. I feel that Pi could not adapt to the conditions on court, whereas I could," said Xu, who set-up a semi-final clash with top seed Zhang Ning.
China's Zhang, who easily defeated Kaori Mori of Japan 11-4, 11-6, was nevertheless critical of her performance.
"I need to be more conscientious of my shuttle placement. For my next game I need to find a way to execute properly. Hopefully all my experience will help me with this," she told reporters.
Second seed Xie Xingfang of China easily defeated England's Tracey Hallam 11-3, 11-1 in another one-sided match.
Xie will face number five seed Cheng Shiao-Chieh of Taiwan in the other semi-final.
Cheng defeated fourth seed Wang Chen of Hong Kong 11-9, 5-11, 11-6 in a closely fought contest.
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