Loh Kean Yew (Photo by By Tony2803.tw)
Former world champion Loh Kean Yew’s hopes of making the BWF World Tour Finals is over.
Having withdrawn from the upcoming Australian Open, Kean Yew’s 13-21, 17-21 defeat at the hands of Indian’s Lakshya Sen in the quarter-finals of the ongoing Japan Masters in Kumamoto , has ended any hopes he had of making the Finals.
With the Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) deciding to put the focus on the SEA Games in December, Kean Yew cannot earn enough points to make the cut for the Finals. Instead he will be looking for a first SEA Games singles title, after ending up with silver twice.
The 40-minute composed victory extends Lakshya’s head-to-head advantage over Kean Yew to 7–6. Lakshya, runner-up at the Hong Kong Open in September, will next face local favorite and Japan’s sixth seed, Kenta Nishimoto, in the semifinals.
The other semi-final will pit Taiwanese Wang Tzu Wei against Japan’s Kodai Noraka.
Malaysian men’s doubles pair Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin kept their slim hopes qualifying for the Final alive. The pair continued to flirt with danger as the fourth ranked pair struggled past Chinese Taipei’s Lee Jhe Huei-Yang Po-hsuan 21-16, 10-21, 21-16.
The close call comes just a day after they were pushed to their limits by 143 ranked Keiichiro Matsui-Katsuki Tamate of Japan before edging to a 21-23, 21-13, 26-24 in 65 minutes
QUARTER-FINAL RESULTS
Men’s Singles: Lakshya Sen (Ind) bt Loh Kean Yew (Sgp) 21-13, 21-17;Kenta Nishimoto (Jpn) bt Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul (Tha) 21-15, 21-14; Wang Tzu Wei (Tpe) bt Rasmus Gemke (Den) 21-14, 21-13; Kodai Noraka (Jpn) bt Lin Chun-yi (Tpe) 21-11, 21-12
Men’s Doubles: Thom Gicquel-Delphine Delrue (Fra) bt Mathias Christiansen-Alexandre Boje (Den) 21-15, 13-21, 21-15; Hiroki Midorikawa-Kyohei Yamashita (Jpn) bt Junaidi Arif-Roy King Yap (Mas) 21-19, 21-14; Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin (Mas) bt Lee Jhe Huei-Yang Po-hsuan (Tpe) 21-16, 10-21, 21-16; Kim Won Ho-Seo Seung Jae (Kor) bt Kakeru Kumagai-Hiroki Nishi (Jpn) 21-11, 21-17
Women’s Singles: Gregoria Mariska Tunjung (Ina) bt Asuka Takahashi (Jpn) 16-21, 21-14, 21-13; Nozomi Okuhara (Jpn) bt Lin Hsiang Ti (Tpe) 21-9, 21-19; Ratchanok Intanon (Tha) bt Wong Ling Ching (Mas) 21-17, 21-9; Chiu Pin-chian-Huang Yu-hsuan (Tpe) 18-21, 21-15, 21-17; Chiu Hsiang Chieh-Wang Chi-lin (Tpe) bt Choong Hon Jian-Muhammad Haikal (Mas) 21-16, 21-16
Women’s Doubles: Yuki Fukushima-Mayu Matsumoto (Jpn) bt Hu Ling Fang-Jheng Yu Chieh (Tpe) 21-17, 21-11; Kim Hye Jeong-Kong Hee Yong (Kor) bt Teng Chun Hsun-Yang Chu Yun (Tpe) 21-10, 21-14; Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi (Jpn) bt Rui Hirokami-Sayaka Hobara (Jpn) 21-23, 22-20, 21-18; Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan (Mas) bt Hsu Yin-hui-Lin Jhih Yun (Tpe) 21-13, 21-17
Mixed Doubles: Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Supissara Paewampran (Tha) bt Phuwanat Horbanluekit-Benyapa Aimsaard (Tha) 21-12, 21-17; Akira Koga-Misaki Matsutomo (Jpn) bt Presley Smith-Jennie Gai (USA) 21-16, 21-14; Ye Hong Wei-Nicole Gonzales Chan (Tpe) bt Liu Kuang Heng-Jheng Yu Chieh (Tpe) 21-18, 21-16
