Badminton Asia Championships 2023: Loh Kean Yew cruises into final
The 2021 world champion from Singapore has a chance to claim his country's first singles title at the continental championships. Loh will face Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the final.
Badminton
Loh Kean Yew is on the cusp of making history.
The star shuttler from Singapore reached the final at the 2023 Badminton Asia Championships in Dubai by beating Lu Guang Zu of China 21-19, 21-15 on Saturday (29 April).
Loh, seeded number seven, needed only 47 minutres to dispatch the Chinese at Dubai's Al Nasr Club.
In Sunday's final, the 25-year-old will face Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting who beat Japan's Tsuneyama Kanta 21-13, 21-16.
The 2021 men's singles BWF world champion Loh defeated his good friend Lee Cheuk Yiu 21-19, 21-19 in the quarter-finals on Friday, after ousting Bahaedeen Ahmad Alshannik of Jordan, and India's Lakshya Sen in his previous matches.
His impressive outing in Dubai is a big boost for his confidence, after a less than ideal start to his 2023 campaign.
Loh had only reached two quarter-finals so far at the Malaysia and India Open. A second bout of COVID weakened his showing at the All England Championships where he lost in the first round.
Meanwhile, An Se Young, number two seed in women's singles, had to dig down deep to eliminate China's Olympic champion Chen Yufei 16-21, 21-11, 21-19. The South Korean will battle it out with Tai Tzu Ying in the final after the shuttler from Chinese Taipei edged past top seed Yamaguchi Akane (Japan) 21-12, 16-21, 21-15.
Loh Kean Yew and Dubai
Loh has good memories of Dubai as he laid the groundwork there for his first world title in 2021. Viktor Axelsen had invited him to train together for a month ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
While he did not win the medal he desired at the Tokyo Games, where Axelsen took gold, Loh did become world champion just a few months later in Huelva, Spain.