SINGAPORE — The crowds were behind local hero Loh Kean Yew but they went home disappointed as the former world champions crashed out of the 2023 KFF Singapore Badminton Open to a lower-ranked opponent Christo Popov in Round of 16 on Thursday, June 8 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
With Loh’s exit, there are no remaining Singapore representatives in the competition as on the same day, Yeo Jia Min suffered defeat at the hands of South Korean An Se Young in straight sets. Yeo faced a tough challenge against the world number two as An demonstrated her dominance by winning convincingly in just 32 minutes with a score of 21-12, 21-11.
It was not an easy start to the tournament for Loh when he faced Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu a day earlier. Lee piled the pressure on Loh from the start before the Singapore shuttle took control of the match, and won the first game 21-19. The second game presented more of a challenge for Loh. But despite trailing at 12-17, Lee rallied back to a five-point streak and showcased his unwavering resolve to ignite a comeback and to snatch a 21-19 in the second game.
It was Loh’s second consecutive win over the world number 14 player, with their previous meeting in April this year at the Badminton Asia Championship in Dubai. In that quarter-final encounter, Loh won by the same score 21-19, 21-19. The pair had also met in the 2019 Singapore Open and it was Lee that triumphed in the qualification round, 21-16, 21-17.
About 4,800 fans witnessed the clash between Loh and Popov in the Round of 16. It was a sluggish start for the 2021 world champions who made crucial mistakes while the French player displayed outstanding skills, to clinch the first game 21-10.
Although Loh was able to redeem himself in the second game as he had a set point at 21-20, he was not able to capitalise on it. The world number five paid dearly for it as Popov regained his mental strength to secure what could have been one of his most memorable wins, as he took the second game 23-21.
“I think in the first game it was bad. The second game I tried my best to focus more and be more aggressive. But I think he’s much more confident and I couldn’t focus that well. I prepared for a tough match, but I guess I wasn’t as mentally ready. I know that he’s a tough player and a good player so I tried my best to prepare but I guess it was not enough,” Loh told the media after the match.
Reflecting on his remarkable performance, Popov said: “I think this is my biggest result yet. Beating Loh Kean Yew [with] a very good performance and I’m just very happy, and I think I played a solid game today even if the conditions were quite hard. I think I managed to adapt well and just sort of play the game. So I’m pretty happy from here.”
Other Singapore badminton players in the tournament are Terry Hee and Jessica Tan who were knocked out on the first day of competition in the mixed doubles Round of 32, losing 22-20, 13-21, 13-21 to Danish pair Mathias Christiansen and Alecandra Boje. In the women’s doubles, Singapore’s Jin Yujia and Crystal Wong fell to Apriyani Rahayu and Siti Ramadhanti in the first hurdle 21-15, 19-21, 15-21.
Organised by the Singapore Badminton Association, the KFF Singapore Badminton Open is a Badminton World Federation World Tour Super 750 series event with a prize purse of US$850,000 ($1.1 million). The tournament will continue over the weekend with the semi-final matches scheduled from 12pm onwards on Saturday (June 10) and the finals from 2pm onwards on Sunday (June 11).
Fans can check for the latest match schedule and results here – https://bwf.tournamentsoftware.com/tournament/10ddd177-0ddd-4b02-b310-5913f127f97f/matches/20230609