China's badminton team swept South Korea 3-0 on Saturday to reach the Sudirman Cup final in Vantaa, Finland.

The defending champions showed power at the Energy Arena, taking three straight wins and leaving the men's doubles and women's doubles matches unnecessary to continue.

Tokyo Olympics mixed doubles champion Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping, who played the deciding match in the quarterfinal and sealed the victory for China, beat Seo Seungjae and Shin Seungchan in straight sets, 21-14, 21-15.

Seo, ranked No. 6 in mixed doubles, is newly paired with Shin who ranks No. 4 in women's doubles.

"It's the same difficult to play the opening match as the deciding match. We don't know too much about the opponents. It needs lots of adjustment," said Huang. "They pushed us a lot and we had lots of tough play, attacking and counterattacking."

"Many fans believe that we can always win, which is a high expectation for us. We try to turn it into motivation for victory," said Huang.

China's men's singles shuttler Shi Yuqi, with two consecutive losses in previous matches, faced challenges from Heo Kwanghee who defeated the Japanese top star Kento Momota at the Tokyo Olympics.

Despite losing the opening set 17-21, Shi chased back to win the following two sets 21-9, 21-11 and helped the team lead with a total score of 2-0.

"After my victory, our team has things under control," said Shi. "I don't want anything unexpected to happen again," said Shi. "I could feel Heo might not want to trap in the fight in the second set and hoped to determine the game in the third. However, I took advantage of it with great confidence."

In the women's singles match, Tokyo Olympics champion Chen Yufei showed a similar game to Shi when losing the first set 14-21. But she got back on course and grabbed the win 21-15, 21-15.

Before the semifinal began, Chen had made preparations for all kinds of situations, including China leading 2-0, leveling 1-1 or even falling 0-2.

"It feels so great to win the match. I'm very happy to help the team reach the final," said Chen.

"I was so excited and impatient in the first set, thinking about sealing the victory for China as soon as possible. I knew exactly what was going wrong and tried to regain the tempo which I'm getting used to in the following two sets," said the 23-year-old.

Winning the Tokyo Olympics gold did not change her attitude. Chen is always willing to restart from a mentally lower position.

"Everyone wants to challenge me, and I'm happy to take that. I enjoy the excitement of meeting challenges from others, because I'm also a big challenge for them," said Chen.

The 2021 Sudirman Cup final will take place on Sunday in Vantaa, while Malaysia and Japan will fight for the other final spot.

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