The quest of Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei for his maiden Olympic gold medal lives on as he overcame a gutsy challenge from Lin Dan in their semifinal round matchup in the ongoing badminton competition at the 2016 Rio Games on Friday.

The 33-year-old Kuala Lumpur-based badminton star finally avenged his two defeats to the Chinese shuttler at previous Olympics in Beijing and London.

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According to the Star Online, Lee dropped the opening set 21-15 as Lin dominated and took an early lead in their best-of-three semifinal round match 1-0. However, the incumbent Asian champ bounced back in the following sets and evened the match at one game apiece after taking the second set 21-11 in just 19 minutes.

In the deciding third game, the two top-notch and multi-titled male shuttlers aggressively sought after every point of the set. Both players played hard trying to get the better of each other as the score was knotted at 16-16 tie and later went to 20-all.

However, Lee managed to hold Lin off and scored two-straight points to walk away with the win. With his victory over Lin, the Malaysian badminton icon is now assured of at least a silver medal finish when he faces Chen Long of China.

Chen Long qualified for the championship round after beating the 22-year-old Victor Axelsen of Denmark 21-14, 21-15. The men's singles badminton finals will be played on Saturday at the Barra Olympic Park Riocentro - Pavilion 4.

TagsLee Chong Wei, Lin Dan, Chen Long, viktor axelsen, Rio Olympics 2016, bwf, bwf rankings