Olympic champion Chen Long of China met Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia in the men's singles quarter-final at the All England Open in Birmingham, the UK on Friday. 

The third-seeded Chen came in as the favorite, but found himself on the end of an upset as his 21-year-old rival beat him for the second time ever to reach the semi-finals.

World number 13 Lee was going to win the 19-shot rally with a leaping smash to go up 17-12 in the first game. Lee won the next three points and when Chen hit the net, the Malaysian won the game 21-12.

The 2016 Rio Olympics champion found himself down 10-7 in the second game. The Chinese sent in a few deep overhead shots that were returned in kind by Lee until he fired a smash and took a four-point lead.

It's soon match point for Lee and when world number six Chen netted a backhand, Lee sealed it 21-18 to reach the tournament's semi-final. The unseeded Malaysian needed only 49 minutes to breeze past Chen and keep alive his hopes of lifting the trophy for the first time.

In the other men's quarter-final, Viktor Axelsen beat China's Shi Yuqi 21-15, 21-7. All Chinese players are now out of the men's singles in this year's All England Open.

On the women's side, China's world number one and defending champion Chen Yufei had to come back to beat fifth-seeded Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand 17-21, 21-15, 21-17 to reach the semi-finals, where Japan's Nozomi Okuhara is waiting for her.

"Today's match was really difficult. The opponent played very well today. It could also be seen that the opponent made a specific deployment according to my characteristics or style of play before the game," said Chen.

(Cover: Chen Long of China in action during the men's singles quarter-final against Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia (not pictured) at the All England Open in Birmingham, the UK, March 13, 2020. /VCG)