Momota sets up final date with Axelsen

World number one Kento Momota faces an All England Open final showdown with Viktor Axelsen after the Japanese star beat Hong Kong's Ng Ka Long Angus in the last four on Saturday.

Momota was in dominant form as the reigning world champions cruised to a 21-19, 21-11 victory, securing his first appearance in the title match in Birmingham.

The 24-year-old left-hander will be up against Denmark's Axelsen, who knocked out China's Shi Yuqi in the other semifinal.

Axelsen prevailed 22-20, 13-21, 21-9 as the 25-year-old reached the final after losing in quarterfinals three times in a row since 2015.

"I think my facial expressions pretty much described how I felt! During the second game, I made a few bad judgements, Shi Yuqi played really well and I decided to spare my energy a little bit," Axelsen said.

"Luckily it turned out to be a good decision as I played quite well in the third game, so right now I'm just really happy and looking forward to the game tomorrow."

Since losing to Lin Dan here in 2017 Axelsen has been a world number one and world champion, but he's not fixated on becoming the first Dane to win the men's singles at the All England Open since Peter Gade in 1999.

"I think no matter what tournament you play there's always these statistics and history and whatever, you can spend however many hours thinking about it," he said.

"It's turned out pretty okay. It's obviously going to be a really tough match but we'll see what happens."