Both Loh Kean Yew, 25, and his brother Loh Kean Hean, 27, saw victories in their respective matches on Wednesday (Aug 24) at the Badminton World Championships in Tokyo.
Kean Yew, currently ranked eighth in the world, breezed past the first round with an easy win against Spain’s Pablo Abian. In Wednesday’s match, he bested world number 40, Guatemala’s Kevin Cordon, in 49 minutes, 21-12, 11-21, 21-12.
This means he has advanced another step in defending the men’s singles title he won in December of last year in Huelva, Spain.
His victory made history in Singapore, as he is the country’s first men’s singles BWF champion.
Kean Yew is set to face either Hong Kong’s Angus Ng Ka-long, ranked 11th in the world, or his countryman Vincent Wong, who is ranked 66th.
Earlier in the day, Kean Hean and his partner, Terry Hee, saw a win against Malaysia’s Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi.
The heavily favoured Malaysian duo had placed third at the 2021 World Championships and are ranked tenth in the world.
Kean Hean and Hee, meanwhile, are ranked 41st.
Nevertheless, they beat Ong and Teo 22-20, 22-20, and have advanced to the next round.
Their next match will either be against Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, ranked eighth in the world, or India’s M. R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila, ranked 35th.
Hee will be playing in another match on Wednesday. With Jessica Tan, his wife, in the mixed doubles. The duo defeated England’s Callum Hemming and Jessica Rose Pugh in the first round and will face Japan’s Yuki Kaneko and Misaki Matsutomo, ranked 12th in the world.
As for Yujia Jin and Crystal Wong, who represent Singapore in the women’s doubles, they’ve already advanced via walkover to the third round of the world championships.
They are set to face eleventh-seeded Zheng Yu and Zhang Shuxian from China in their next match. /TISG
Loh Kean Yew takes first step in defending world title with easy win over Spain’s Pablo Abian