Singapore's Loh Kean Yew beats Hong Kong's Angus Ng, advances to World Championships quarter-finals
SINGAPORE: Reigning badminton world champion Loh Kean Yew put in a commanding performance on Thursday (Aug 25) and remains in the running to defend his title after advancing to the quarter-finals of the World Championships.
The Singaporean beat Hong Kong’s world number 11 Angus Ng Ka-long 21-11, 11-4, after his opponent retired in the second game. The match took 23 minutes.
This was the second meeting between both players, with Loh winning both encounters.
Loh, the world number eight, will next face Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn. At the Southeast Asian Games earlier this year, the Thai beat Loh to take the Games' singles gold.
At last year’s World Championships, Loh went on a fairytale run which saw him upset a number of higher ranked players, including Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen, en route to winning the title.
In the men’s doubles of this year's event, Singapore's Terry Hee and Loh Kean Hean fell to India’s Dhruv Kapila and M R Arjun. The Indian pair took the victory 18-21, 21-15, 21-16.
Hee and Jessica Tan’s run in the mixed doubles also ended later in the day after they lost to Hong Kong’s Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet. The world number 7 duo won the match 21-10, 21-15.
Singapore’s unseeded women’s doubles pair of Jin Yujia and Crystal Wong were also eliminated after losing to China's 11th seeds Zhang Shu Xian and Zheng Yu 15-21, 14-21.
