SINGAPORE — The country’s premier badminton player is off to a good start for the year, winning his first two matches of the Malaysia Open and advancing to the quarter-finals.
The tournament, officially known as the Petronas Malaysia Open 2023, is held from Jan 10 to 15 at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, with a total prize of US$1,250,000 (SGD1,663,000).
Congratulations, @reallohkeanyew!#BadmintalkPhoto #PMO2023 #MalaysiaOpen2023 pic.twitter.com/iAicVqURXT
— Badminton Talk (@BadmintonTalk) January 11, 2023
Loh Kean Yew is seeded third at the first tournament of the 2023 BWF World Tour, behind Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen and Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, who is ranked number one and two, respectively. The match was a hard-fought one that took 51 minutes in all. Below are highlights from the game.
Lee, however, bowed out to Japan’s Kodai Naraoka in the round of 32 on Wednesday (Jan 11) in three sets (13-21, 21-17, 21-19).
Axelsen defeated his countryman Rasmus Gemke in the first round (17-21, 21-14, 21-12) and faces Malaysia’s Daren Liew on Thursday (Jan 12) for the second round.
Loh took his first win against China’s Li Shifeng, ranked 20th in the world, on Wednesday (Jan 11) 21-19, 23-21.
On Thursday, he faced Zhao Junpeng, who is also from China and is currently ranked 12th in the world, winning in straight sets 21-15, 21-8.
Loh is the first men’s singles player in the tournament to advance to the quarter-finals.
The former world champion recently reached career highs not only with ranking third in the world but also with winning Sportsman of the Year at the Singapore Sports Awards on Nov 10 and being the first Singaporean to qualify for the BWF World Tour Finals 2022 on Nov 16.
On Nov 28, 2022, it was announced that Loh had been nominated for the Male Player Of The Year Award at the BWF Player of the Year Awards 2022.
The other nominees in this category were Malaysia’s Lee and Denmark’s Axelsen.
“Nominees were selected based on performances in the 2021/2022 season from 1 November 2021 to 31 October 2022 and recognises achievements of our elite badminton and Para badminton players and pairs in eight categories,” BWF said on its site.
Axelsen won the award for Male Player Of The Year. /TISG
Loh Kean Yew nominated for Badminton World Federation (BWF) 2022 Male Player Of The Year
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Loh Kean Yew’s valiant display falls short against Viktor Axelsen at China Open – Singapore News