SINGAPORE — Singapore’s top shuttler Loh Kean Yew has once again failed in his quest to claim a victory over Indonesia’s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, as the two battled it out at the weekend in the men’s singles final of the 2023 Badminton Asia Championships.
Loh, who won the BWF World Championship in 2021, fell for the fourth consecutive time to the world number two ranked player in just half an hour, 21-12, 21-8 at the Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Indoor Hall in Dubai, UAE.
Despite the loss, Loh climbed three spots to be in fourth place in the latest Badminton World Federation’s ranking for the men’s singles category. Viktor Axelsen remains the world’s number one badminton player, and Ginting maintained his spot in second place. Japanese badminton player Kodai Naraoka is in third place, while Chou Tien Tien of Chinese Taipei is in fifth. All the players mentioned above will be in action in Singapore at the upcoming Singapore Badminton Open at the Singapore Indoor Stadium from June 6 to 11.
Loh’s attention has now turned to the upcoming SEA Games in Cambodia, with the badminton competition scheduled for May 8 to 16 at the Morodok Techo National Stadium in Phnom Penh. But this also clashes with the BWF Sudirman Cup, starting on May 14 in Suzhou, China. Therefore Loh, and other Team Singapore badminton players, such as Yeo Jia Min, will only be participating in the team events in Cambodia, which will end on May 11.
Singapore is drawn in Group A with China, Denmark and Egypt for the 2023 Sudirman Cup. There are four groups, and the top two from each group will advance to the quarter-finals stage. Singapore last played in the Sudirman Cup in 2019, grouped with Canada, Germany, and Israel. Singapore finished the group in third place, with one point courtesy of a 4-1 win over Israel. They lost their other two matches with similar results, 3-2, to Canada and Germany. Singapore then won their 17th-ranking classification match 3-0 against Vietnam.
“It’s been a mixed week – had some good runs and hard lessons to learn. Leaving Dubai with a silver medal in the bag. My heartiest congratulations to Ginting for winning the Asian title. Heading to Cambodia for the SEA Games soon, see you then!”
Singapore won one silver and five bronze in the previous SEA Games held in Hanoi, Vietnam. Loh clinched the Republic’s only silver medal and won the bronze medal in the men’s team event.
Although it is a disappointment for Loh not to be able to claim glory in Dubai, he remains the only Singaporean player to advance to the final of the Badminton Asian Championship and to bring home the silver medal. Prior to Loh’s performance, Singapore only managed a bronze medal in 2001 by Indra Wijaya in the men’s singles and Xiao Luxi in the women’s singles the following year. In 2006 Hendri Saputra and Li Yujia also received the bronze medal in the mixed doubles event.
Wijaya started his badminton career representing Indonesia before switching his allegiance to Singapore. In the 2001 Asian Badminton Championship in Manila, Wijaya went up against a young Lee Chong Wei from Malaysia in the early stages of the tournament. He faced eventual champion Xia Xuanze of China in the semi-finals, losing 15-7, 15-8. Xuanze defeated 18-year-old Lin Dan in the final, who was then a young and rising star in the badminton scene.