SINGAPORE: Loh Kean Yew clinched his first title in 14 months on Sunday (May 11) after ousting home favourite Chou Tien-chen in the men’s singles final at the Taipei Open.
World number 11 Loh, who was the second seed at the Super 300 tournament, beat the top seed and world number 7 Chou 21-14, 15-21, 22-20 in 69 minutes.
In a pulsating encounter, the Singaporean was stretched by his 35-year-old opponent but held his nerve, particularly in the final game where Chou saved four match points to take the game to 20-20 before the former world champion closed it out.
The world number 11 avenged his 2024 Thailand Masters final loss to the Taiwanese, to seal his fourth BWF World Tour title. He also improved his head-to-head record against his 35-year-old opponent to 4-4 following the victory.
En route to the final, Loh beat Hong Kong’s Chan Yin Chak, Finland’s Joakim Oldorff, Thailand’s Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul and Wang Tzu-wei.
He is the first Singaporean to win a title at the Taipei Open.
A STRONG YEAR
With new Singapore’s singles head coach Kim Ji-hyun in his corner, Loh has been in good form this year.
He earned bronze at the Badminton Asia Championships last month, finished runner-up at the German Open and made the All England Open quarter-finals.
In addition to taking home last year’s Spain Masters title and being crowned the winner of the 2021 BWF World Championships, Loh won the Thailand Masters in 2019 and Hylo Open in 2021.
In the women’s singles final, Japan’s Tomoka Miyazaki beat Thai Pitchamon Opatniputh 21-12, 20-22, 21-14 in a battle of two rising 18-year-olds to clinch her third BWF World Tour title.
Loh will next set his sights on the Super 500 Thailand Open, which will start on Tuesday (May 13).
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