Former world number one men's singles shuttler Datuk Lee Chong Wei stayed on course to claim his third title this season after cruising to the semifinals of the French Open Super Series Badminton Tournament at Stade Pierre De Coubartin in Paris.

The 32-year old Penangite who won two back-to-back titles -- the United States Open and Canada Open, both in June, after serving a backdated eight-month ban for a doping offence which ended in May, only took 36 minutes to dispose off Japanese veteran shuttler Sho Sasaki; winning in 21-9, 21-12 in the quarter-finals late Friday (early Saturday Malaysian time).

Chong Wei is slated to meet Wang Zhengming of China in the last four at approximately 7pm Saturday local time (1am Sunday Malaysian time), Badminton World Federation (BWF) website www.bwfbadminton.org reported.

The unseeded Chinese shuttler advanced to the semifinals after earning a hard-fought 21-17, 12-21, 21-8 win against Rajiv Ouseph of England in another quarter-final match.

Malaysia's challenge in the four other events, namely men's doubles, women's singles and doubles and also the mixed pairs event had ended early after they went down in the preliminary rounds of the US$275,000 (RM1,185 million) tournament.