Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew stunned by world number 50 in quarter-finals, exits BWF World Championships

SINGAPORE: No stranger to a giant-killing run over the years, it was world number 9 Loh Kean Yew’s turn to be on the receiving end on Friday (Aug 29) after losing to Canada’s Victor Lai in the BWF World Championships men's singles quarter-finals.

In their first meeting, world championship debutant Lai, ranked 50th in the world, took the match 22-20, 21-18 at the Adidas Arena in Paris.

In the early exchanges, there was little separating both players, and it was the unruffled Lai, 20, who went into the interval 11-8 ahead after picking up four consecutive points.

But Loh, 28, has shown grit throughout the tournament, and capitalised on a number of errors by Lai to overturn the deficit and take a 17-12 lead.

The Canadian, however, was far from done as he levelled things at 19-19 and once again at 20-20, before seeing the first game out in 22 minutes.

The Singaporean started much stronger in the second game and raced to a 4-0 lead. However, Lai once again showed he was not overawed by the occasion or his higher-ranked opponent, and put together a run of eight straight points.

Lai went into the interval 11-9 ahead, and Loh would not regain the lead again as his opponent claimed his biggest scalp of the tournament so far.

Lai, who upset China’s world number 11 Lu Guangzu and 38th-ranked South Korean Jeon Hyeok-jin, will next face either world number one Shi Yu Qi of China or his compatriot Weng Hong Yang in the semi-finals.

He is guaranteed at least a joint-bronze as there is no playoff for third. The last unseeded men's singles player to reach the BWF World Championships semi-finals was Loh in 2021.

This is Loh’s first tournament since he suffered a bacterial infection, and missed out on the China and Japan Opens.

In the early rounds,