Loh Kean Yew's title drought continues after agonising Korea Open final loss

SINGAPORE — Loh Kean Yew's agonising 18-month title drought continues, as the Singapore shuttler came up just short at the Korean Open, losing narrowly 21-11, 11-21, 19-21 to Denmark's Anders Antonsen in the final on Sunday (23 July).

Since his monumental triumph at the Badminton World Championships in December 2021, Loh has yet to taste another title success on the BWF World Tour circuit.

And Sunday's defeat at the Jinnam Stadium in Yeosu may sting for a while, as the world No.8 had to count the cost of several errors in crucial points that swung the nail-biting final game away from him.

Against Antonsen - a former world No.2 who had also reached this year's Singapore Open final - Loh started tentatively, falling into a 4-9 deficit in the opening game. However, he found his range in time to rattle off 17 of the next 19 points to take the game.

However, the 26-year-old struggled in the second game, playing with the drift and seeing his shots go awry. Antonsen quickly seized the initiative and stormed ahead to take the match into a decisive third game.

Loh's struggled continued as he found himself down 8-13, but he found his rhythm back in time to tie the match at 14-14. Just as he was about to seize the initiative, fatigue and errors crept back into his game and Antonsen sealed the 68-minute battle with a fine smash that just found the sideline.

Refreshed after month-long break

Despite the loss, it was an improved outing for Loh, who took a month-long break after a indifferent spell of form in which he won only four out of nine matches on the BWF World Tour, including an out-of-sorts loss in June's Singapore Open.

Throughout the Korea Open, he was able to stay in long rallies, be patient and strike at opportune times. That proved enough for him to eke out hard-fought victories in the round-of-16 against China's Zhao Junpeng, in the quarter-finals against Malaysia's Ng Tze Yong, and in an epic 80-minute semi-final battle against Japan's top-seeded Kodai Naraoka.

Since his World Championships triumph in Huelva in 2021, Loh has reached two other finals before this Korea Open: at the India Open in January 2022, and at this April's Badminton Asia Championships. He lost to India's Lakshya Sen in the first final, and fell to Indonesia's world No.2 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the second.

In the women's singles, South Korea's An Se-young avenged her Badminton Asia Championships final loss to Taiwan's Tai Tzu-ying, easily winning 21-9, 21-15 to clinch her sixth title this year. The reigning Singapore Open champion will cement her status as the most in-form shuttler this week, when she overtakes Akane Yamaguchi as the women's world No.1.

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