The world No 1 was pushed all the way by Li, who recovered from a dominant opening game from Shi to threaten an upset.

Shi’s only previous All England success came back in 2018, but he is a big favourite to land a second title on Sunday against Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao.

“We both made some mistakes, so it was about the finer points today,” said Shi. “We needed a lot of patience. It wasn’t about tactics, just about avoiding mistakes.”

Lee continued his fairytale run with a 19-21, 21-14, 21-17 victory over in-form Frenchman Alex Lanier.

“The victory hasn’t sunk in yet – I didn’t expect that I would do this well,” said the world No 22. “I’m so surprised by the result myself.”

The world No 1 is also into the women’s final as South Korea’s An Se-young proved too strong for two-time world champion Akane Yamaguchi.

An, winner of the All England Open two years ago, cruised through 21-12, 21-17 to maintain her record of dropping just one game all week.

She will face Wang Zhiyi after she won an all-Chinese semifinal over Han Yue 21-10, 21-19.