Badminton: Singapore's Loh Kean Yew falls to defending Olympic champion Axelsen, exits Paris Olympics

PARIS: Loh Kean Yew’s run at the Paris Olympics ended on Friday (Aug 2), after he was beaten by reigning men’s singles champion Viktor Axelsen in the quarter-finals.

At the Porte de La Chapelle Arena, world number 2 Axelsen was in imperious form beating world number 12 Loh 21-9, 21-17 in 49 minutes.

The Singaporean had started on the back foot, and to make matters worse, Loh scraped his right hand diving for a return early on. It would have to be taped up to stem the bleeding and would affect the world number 12's grip.

The Dane had an 8-2 head-to-head record against the Singaporean going into the clash. Loh last triumphed over Axelsen in October 2022.

Things were much tighter in the second, with things level at 14-14, before a series of mistakes from Loh handed the initiative to the Dane.

Axelsen will next face India’s unseeded world number 22 Lakshya Sen, who beat Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien-Chen earlier in the day.

In the round of 16 on Thursday, Loh beat China Li Shifeng to book his spot against Axelsen, who had a bye.

Former world champion Loh made his Games debut at the last edition of the Olympics in Tokyo where he was eliminated in the group stage.

Loh is the first Singaporean to reach the quarter-finals at the Olympics in two decades.

Men's singles player Ronald Susilo had previously reached the quarter-finals of the competition in 2004 before being eliminated.

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