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NAGOYA: Former world champion Loh Kean Yew navigated a tricky opening tie at the Asian Games, beating India’s Lakshya Sen in the men’s singles round of 32 on Saturday (Sep 26).<\/p>\n
At the Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium, the world number 13 beat world-ranked 14 Sen 21-12, 15-21, 21-14. Both players received a bye in the previous round.<\/p>\n
Loh defeated Sen at their last meeting earlier this year, but had a 4-7 head-to-head record against his opponent going into Saturday’s match.<\/p>\n
Sen, who clinched a bronze in the team event, raced off to a 5-1 start. But the deficit seemed to jolt the Singaporean into action as he reeled off 10 consecutive points to take a six point lead at the interval.<\/p>\n
And the Singaporean looked in imperious form, with Sen having no answer to his trademark smashes and precise drop shots.<\/p>\n
Things were closer in the second game as Sen took a slender one point lead going into the break. A more aggressive approach from the Indian coupled with a number of errors from Loh took the match to a decider.<\/p>\n
Things swung the way of Loh early on in the third as he led 8-3 and held his nerve despite Sen coming back from 8-14 to 13-14.<\/p>\n
The Singaporean shuttler will next face Malaysia’s Justin Hoh or Bangladesh’s Gourab Singha later on Saturday.<\/p>\n
At the 2023 Hangzhou Games, Loh lost to Malaysia\u2019s Ng Tze Yong<\/span> at the same stage of the competition.<\/span><\/p>\n Loh is among four badminton players representing Singapore at the Games. Singapore’s top women’s singles player Yeo Jia Min, and the men’s doubles pair of Wesley Koh and Junsuke Kubo are set to feature later on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n