Singapore's Loh Kean Yew beats Japan's Naraoka in marathon match, advances to All-England last 16

SINGAPORE: Singapore's Loh Kean Yew overcame Japan's Kodai Naraoka in a 93-minute thriller on Wednesday (Mar 4) and advanced to the men's singles round of 16 at the All-England Open.

At the Utilita Arena Birmingham, world-ranked 10 Loh came back from 15-19 down in the decider and saved three match points to claim a 14-21, 21-19, 24-22 victory. He is now unbeaten against the world number 9 in all eight career meetings.

Loh will next face France's Christo Popov, whom he has a 3-4 head-to-head record against. At last year's edition, the Singaporean made the quarterfinals before he was eliminated by world number 1 Shi Yu Qi.

Earlier in the day, Loh's compatriot Jason Teh went down 11-21, 21-10, 15-21 to Indonesia's fourth seed Jonatan Christie. Teh, ranked 34th in the world, has yet to beat the world number 4 in five meetings.

In the women's singles, Singapore's world number 38 Yeo Jia Min also progressed to the round of 16 after Thailand's seventh seed Ratchanok Intanon retired due to injury. 

Yeo had fallen behind 12-21 in the first game, but was 11-6 up in the second. She will next face world-ranked 23 Line Christophersen.

On Tuesday, Singapore’s Terry Hee and Indonesia’s Gloria Widjaja came agonisingly close to a shock victory over China’s world number 1 pair of Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping.

Feng and Huang, who are the tournament’s top seeds, took the win 18-21, 21-18, 21-19 in 81 minutes.

Hee, 30, had previously forged a successful on court partnership with his wife Jessica Tan. They won Singapore’s first gold medal in the mixed doubles at the Commonwealth Games in 2022, and also competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Following injuries to Tan, Hee teamed up with Jin Yujia in late 2024 for a short stint. Tan announced her