Hosts China suffered a huge scare before rallying past Japan 3-2 to reach the final of the Sudirman Cup in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, on Saturday.

In the opening mixed doubles event, China's Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping were stunned by Japan's Kyohei Yamashita and Naru Shinoya 24-26, 21-18, 22-24 in a 106-minute thriller.

"We were actually leading all the way in the latter part of the third set, and I had a lot of chances, but we dropped it. I think I should have been a bit more patient," said Feng.

The second event was the men's singles match between China's Shi Yuqi and Japan's Kodai Naraoka, while the third event was the women's singles match between China's Chen Yufei and Japan's Akane Yamaguchi.

Shi recovered from one set down to beat Naraoka 13-21, 21-15, 12-17 in the men's singles, and Olympic women's singles champion Chen lost to Yamaguchi 14-21, 15-21.

Later, Liu Yuchen and Ou Xuanyi saved China from the brink of defeat as the men's doubles pair clinched a crucial tie when Japan led 2-1 and had four match points in hand.

The young pair lost their first set 21-17 before claiming the second 21-19. Japan's Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi showed strength to lead 20-16 in the third set but were turned back by Liu and Ou 22-20 when Japan were one step away from the final.

"We are very happy to have taken the match; we did our job today and didn't let the fans down at home with the men's doubles," said Liu.

"I didn't think I could play like that before, but I gave it my all," Ou added.

With such morale and cheering from the home crowds, world No. 1 women's pair Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan thrashed Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota in straight sets to seal the win.

China, the most successful team in tournament history, have won 12 of the past 17 editions and never missed the final since 1993.

After making to the final 15 times in a row, the hosts will contend for the title with four-time winner South Korea, who knocked out Malaysia 3-1 earlier on Saturday.

Chinese badminton great Chen Long announced his retirement at age 34, ending a decorated career that included Olympic gold and two world titles.

"This is a difficult moment for me. It's so hard to say goodbye," Chen wrote on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform, on May 19.

"At this special moment, I'm really full of emotion. I want to say thank you to the Chinese badminton team, my family and the fans. Badminton is the love of my life. I was lucky enough to wear the national shirt and play for my country because not all dreams come true in life," he said.

The former world number one won the Olympic crown at Rio 2016 and followed it up with silver during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. He also took bronze at the London 2012 Games and claimed the world titles in 2014 and 2015.

(With input from Xinhua, AFP)