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Loh Kean Yew

At the BWF World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, Singapore’s top badminton player is set to defend his title.

Loh Kean Yew, 25, made it past the first round in 29 minutes, besting Spain’s Pablo Abian, ranked 58th in the world, 21-12, 21-12.

Singapore’s first-ever world champion is currently ranked eighth.

Loh made history in December of last year when he won the championship at Huelva, Spain, defeating India’s Kidambi Srikanth 21-15, 22-20.

However, since then, it has been an uneven year for Loh, who has not yet won a title in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Tour 2022.

His highlights for this year were coming in second place to Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsam at the SEA Games in Vietnam in May, as well as making it to the Indian Open final in January, where he lost to India’s 20-year-old Lakshya Sen, 22-24, 17-21, in a game that lasted nearly an hour.

Loh also reached the Indonesian Masters semi-finals in June, as well as the quarter-finals at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham earlier this month.

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But at the match against Abian on Monday (Aug 22), Loh was in fine form.

He faces Guatemala’s Kevin Cordon, ranked 41st in the world, in the next round.

“I’m happy to be back in Tokyo and playing in the World Championships again, but even though it was a historic win in December, that is already history,” he is quoted in The Straits Times as saying.

“I was focused and stuck to the game plan even when I was trailing. As always, I’m taking it one match at a time and will analyse and discuss the strategy for the next match with my coach,” he added.

Loh was not the only member of the family to see a win at the opening round of the BWF World Championships.

His brother, Loh Kean Hean and Terry Hee won over France’s Christo and Tomo Junior Popov in the men’s doubles in 34 minutes, 21-17, 21-18.

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The duo will be up against Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi, who are ranked ninth in the world. /TISG

Home crowd helps Loh Kean Yew get one step closer to clinching men’s singles title at Singapore Open