Denmark’s Axelsen, who was the champion in 2020 and 2022, started smoothly but Ginting levelled the match at the BWF World Tour Super 1000 event in Birmingham, paving the way for a dramatic decider.

Ginting looked set to wrap up the match relatively comfortably when he forged into an 18-12 lead but Axelsen won six straight points to level at 18-18.

However, Ginting kept his nerve to prevail 21-19.

In Saturday’s semifinal, he will face unseeded Frenchman Christo Popov, who avenged the defeat of his brother, beating Koki Watanabe in straight games a day after the Japanese had seen off Toma Junior Popov.

India’s Lakshya Sen will face Jonatan Christie of Indonesia on the other side of the draw.

In the women’s competition, South Korea’s world No 1 An Se-young, yet to drop a game at the tournament, saw off Chinese eighth seed Han Yue 21-16, 21-19 and will meet Japanese fourth seed Akane Yamaguchi in the last four.

Third seed Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan came from behind to take a tight decider 22-20 against China’s He Bingjiao and will face Spanish fifth seed Carolina Marin next.