SEA Games: Badminton world champ Loh Kean Yew in singles final after tough fight
HANOI - Badminton world champion Loh Kean Yew survived an almighty scare before reaching his second consecutive SEA Games singles final after beating Vietnam's Nguyen Tien Minh on Saturday (May 21).
At the Bac Giang Gymnasium, the world No. 10 beat world No. 69 Nguyen 21-15, 10-21, 23-21 in front of an electrifying atmosphere with drums and air horns at full volume.
Loh, the 2019 silver medalist, was in spectacular form with his powerful smashes and quick movement, allowing him to dominate proceedings from the start.
But Nguyen pulled one back courtesy of several unforced errors from Loh and his own winners.
The rubber was a tight affair with several calls going against Loh but he pulled through to come away with the win.
This is Loh's second consecutive SEA Games singles final and he will be aiming to make the most of this opportunity to win the gold.
He will meet Thai world No. 18 Kunlavut Vitidsarn, who beat another Singaporean in the semi-finals. Vitidsarn triumphed 21-11, 21-12 against world No. 88 Jason Teh, who clinched his first individual bronze medal.
Malaysian All-England champion Lee Zii Jia as well as Indonesian stars Jonatan Christie and Anthony Ginting are among other top players not in the field in Vietnam.
The last Singaporean to win the men's singles title at the biennial Games is Wong Shoon Keat in 1983.
In the women's doubles, Nur Insyirah Khan and Bernice Lim also settled for the joint bronze after they lost to Indonesia's Apriyani Rahayu and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti 21-10, 21-7 on Saturday.
World No. 50 men's doubles pair Loh Kean Hean and Terry Hee also settled for joint bronze after Indonesian pair Pramudya Kusumawardana and Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan came from behind to win 15-21, 21-17, 21-19.
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