Loh Kean Yew marches on comfortably at Badminton Asia Championships
World No.7 easily subdues Jordan opponent to set up quarter-final tie with Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yiu
SINGAPORE — Former badminton world champion Loh Kean Yew took another assured step forward at the Badminton Asia Championships on Thursday (27 April), comfortably easing past his round-of-16 opponent in Dubai.
The current world No.7 took 30 minutes to dispatch Jordan's world No.102 Bahaedeen Ahmad Alshannik 21-14, 21-14 to march into the quarter-finals with little trouble.
The gulf in talent was evident as Loh took control early, scoring 12 consecutive points to sweep to a 13-3 lead before taking the first game.
The second game saw Alshannik trading leads with Loh at the start, but the Singaporean shifted up a gear at 6-8 down, catching up at 10-all before taking the lead for good to clinch the match.
Loh thus matches his 2022 showing in the same competition, as he also reached the quarter-finals in Manila before losing to Indonesia's Jonatan Christie.
The 25-year-old will face Hong Kong's world No.20 Lee Cheuk Yiu, who scored an upset 21-18, 21-18 over China's world No.10 Shi Yuqi, the runner-up in last month's All England Championships. Loh has never beaten Lee in their three previous encounters, most recently at last year's Malaysia Open.
On Wednesday, he had defeated India's Lakshya Sen in his opening-round tie.
Loh is the only Singaporean remaining in the championships, after mixed doubles duo Terry Hee and Jessica Tan exited their competition earlier on Thursday.
The Commonwealth Games gold medallists faced the top-seeded pair of Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong, and were no match for the Chinese duo, as they succumbed 13-21, 9-21 in just 27 minutes.
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