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Loh Kean Yew roars into Badminton Asia Championships s-finals

Loh Kean Yew is closing in on his roaring best as he recorded his first victory over his Hong Kong buddy Lee Cheuk Yiu to reach the Badminton Asia Championships men’s singles semi-finals and match the Republic’s best performance in the competition.

The 25-year-old will take on China’s world No. 14 Lu Guangzu on Saturday for a historic place in the final. In their only meeting at the 2022 Indonesia Masters, Loh won in straight games.

He told The Straits Times: “Cheuk Yiu is one of my closest friends on the circuit, someone I can talk cock and even share an apartment with when we train overseas, and it feels good to finally beat him.

“I’m happy with every breakthrough, but I just want to take one match at a time. Anything can happen.”

Before Loh, who became Singapore’s first badminton world champion in 2021, only Indra Wijaya (men’s singles, 2001), Xiao Luxi (women’s singles, 2002), and Hendri Kurniawan Saputra and Li Yujia (mixed doubles, 2006) had won bronze medals at the Asia championships.

The world No. 7 will have a chance to surpass them after putting on a high-octane display that demonstrated some of his best traits to beat the 20th-ranked Lee 21-19, 21-19 in 39 minutes at the Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Indoor Hall in Dubai on Friday.

In a tight opening game, Loh started and finished strongly with his trademark ferocious smashes and deft net plays, including arguably the point of the match when he made two diving saves, the second of which turned out to be a drop-shot winner, at 18-16.

Lee, who had won all their three previous encounters, raced into an 18-14 advantage in the second game but Loh responded by claiming seven of the next eight points before unleashing a jubilant fist pump and deafening roar.

The win came as a boost after his sluggish start to the year, winning six of 12 matches and reaching just two quarter-finals at the Malaysia and India Opens. He was not helped by a second bout of Covid-19 after losing in the first round of the All England Open, but benefited from a one-week training camp in Dubai before the start of the Asia championships.

National singles coach Kelvin Ho said: “The game plan today was to maintain a high intensity and put pressure on the opponent, which Kean Yew did well to control for most of the game.

“He is still trying to find his momentum this year, as we try to combine new skills with his own style to make him more complete. To go further, he will need to remain hungry and manage his train of thoughts well on court.”

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