Competitive sport is cruel, I won’t force it on my son: Loh Kean Yew

Q: You have played tournaments in many countries in 2026. What does it mean to be back home and playing in the KFF Singapore Open?

Loh Kean Yew: It’s always nice to be home and be around familiar people and things. The KFF Singapore Open is always one of the most special tournaments for me because I get to compete in front of our own local fans. The atmosphere is amazing, and the support really means a lot to me. Of course, I hope to do well and go as far as I can.

Q: You had a solid start to 2026, making two semi-finals, beating Kunlavut Vitidsarn, Kenta Nishimoto and Lakshya Sen – all of whom you have a losing record against – and also winning eight out of 11 matches. You then lost four out of your next seven matches and slipped to world No. 14. What happened?

Loh: I have been working a lot more on court with different methods than what I used to do before. I also do more gym work than hard running to build up my power, which I lost after my bacterial infection last year. This worked to some extent at the start of the year.

But as touring pros, we also play on with many niggling injuries which people don’t know about. Sometimes they catch up with us and I couldn’t really move in my first-round loss at the Thailand Open earlier this month.

Q: How do top players like you improve? What little things do you change or add to your game and how difficult is it to enforce the changes in competition?

Loh: I know the biggest problem in my game is the unforced errors – hitting the shuttle out or into the net. The simple solution is to just hit it over the net, but at the highest level, you cannot just do that without quality.

The good thing for me is, I’m an attacking player with a strong smash to turn to. But I also suffered when I lost a lot of power after my bacterial infection. I couldn’t smash well to put opponents under pressure. At the moment, I’m still trying to gain back my power.

I’m not there yet, but I think I have become a better player with more experience now compared to five years ago. I don’t smash as much now, and I try to find the right time to do so while applying pressure with good rallies.

To play this style, which is different from what I was used to, and build a more patient and all-round game after winning the world championships was tough. With such a packed calendar and very little time to have proper training blocks, it’s tough to make any changes to my game, much less see instant results.

To succeed, a lot of things need to come together – the right guidance, support, resources, environment and sparring. The coaches are also important because they need to know what to change, what to work on, what skills to add and how to achieve all these.

Q: Do you think you have reached your full potential as a player?

Loh: It’s complicated to say what is considered full potential. I feel I can still get better with the right guidance, mindset and resources, which suggests I haven’t reached my full potential. Will I ever? I don’t know. But as long as I’m trying, anything is possible.

The rules are going to change, which will affect the game and how we prepare. Things will be different and whoever adapts fastest and best to the changes will benefit, and we don’t know yet who that will be.

Q: Your career-high world ranking is No. 3. Do you believe you still have more in you to get back to that ranking or better? What more would you like to achieve in your career?

Loh: Being world No. 1 and winning an Olympic medal are things I’ve always wanted to achieve but haven’t, and they are why I’m still training hard. I don’t know if I will achieve them but if I stop trying, then for sure I won’t.

There’s the Asian Games this year, which is a target but in some ways it can be more difficult than the Olympics because the concentration of good players is higher. I also want to win another world championship medal.

Q: It’s been over four years since your world championship win. How has that moment affected your career and life?

Loh: I went from winning nothing to suddenly winning the world championships, and that also raised people’s expectations, even though they may not know how things work.

In badminton, there’s no textbook answer or magic formula. We need trial and error, and results are not guaranteed. Some take months, some take years, some never get there.

Before becoming world champion, I felt it was okay to make mistakes and learn from them. After that, it felt like I’m not allowed to make mistakes because I got a lot more attention on and off the court and was being constantly judged.

I could not improve from trial and error, and that was why I was stagnant for a while. But this was also something I had to go through to improve my mentality.

Q: How much did the quarter-final losses at the 2024 Olympics, 2025 world championships and SEA Games hurt you?

Loh: The Olympics and world championships are more prestigious, so obviously they hurt more when I was so close to a medal.

This is also why I said competitive sport is cruel, as one small incident can have a big impact. I felt I was playing well at the Olympics, and then I scraped my playing hand and had to play with a cumbersome bandage against the eventual champion Viktor Axelsen.

At the world championships, Victor Lai got a point despite tumbling over to my side of the court, and the preparations weren’t ideal for the SEA Games and Zaki Ubaidillah was playing well. People can say these are excuses, but these things did happen and have an impact on the game, and I was also up against opponents who were on top of their game at that moment.

Q: Would you trade your 2021 world championship win for an Olympic medal?

Loh: It’s a tough one. Most athletes would love to win an Olympic medal, and it’s also because the chance to do so comes only once every four years. But I treasure my world championship win because it opened so many doors for me.

Q: Do you still feel the weight of expectations and scrutiny these days?

Loh: As elite athletes, we cannot have no expectations of ourselves. Otherwise, we will never reach the top. There are also expectations from our coaches and association, which is fine because these are people supporting us. The tougher part is dealing with comments from keyboard warriors who say anything they want.

I was affected by what people said after winning the world championships. Some even asked me to retire when I wasn’t winning tournaments. So, the first year after that was trying to get used to the attention and expectations, and the two years after that I was trying to avoid and then learning to manage them.

The turning point was after I had my son in 2024 and my focus turned to my family and nothing else mattered. It gave me a different sense of purpose.

Q: Can you describe the pressure you face, and how you cope?

Loh: At times, when confidence is high, these shots will just clear the net or land just in. But there are times when the shots miss by just a bit, and your confidence just slips.

It’s like you leave home for work, and realise at the MRT station you forgot to bring along your stuff. When you return home, you don’t have your key. You reach the office late, get scolded by your boss, and your work piles up.

You have to work overtime, and your boss says your work is poor. You reach home and can’t find your key, so you have to call and pay a locksmith and wait outside for another hour before you can finally get in. When things go wrong, it’s like you can do nothing right.

Getting knocked out early is not as bad as not knowing why you lost and not being allowed the time and opportunity to work on your game and make changes through trial and error, and the problems keep repeating.

Confidence ultimately comes from doing well on court, but I’m thankful to have my wife by my side to always encourage me to do my best, especially when things get tough.

Q: After you and Jason Teh, there is a big gap with the other local men’s singles players. Do you think Singapore can produce better players in the future, and what would it take?

Loh: I’ve rebutted sceptical taxi drivers before and told them that there are talented players with good potential in Singapore.

But they must know what they are in this for, and do what it takes to watch, learn, get better and get there, even if there is no guaranteed return on investment. If you work hard, you won’t necessarily win. But if you don’t work hard, you will definitely not last. Are they willing to take this step?

Q: Your son is almost two now. How has fatherhood been?

Loh: I’ve always dreamt of having a kid early to avoid a large age gap, so that we won’t feel so disconnected. But it is definitely not easy as a touring pro because I don’t get to spend as much time with my family as I would like, as I have to fly around to train and compete.

I would love to be part of the journey and watch him grow, but my wife and in-laws are taking care of my son a lot more than I do, so it has been tough on them too.

Q: Would you let your son pursue competitive badminton in the future?

Loh: He is very active and has quite a personality as well. He likes to decide what he wants to eat and when he wants to sleep. I try to let him play as much as possible so he can expend his energy.

I gave him my racket and he can swing up and down a little. I want him to play sports to be healthy and disciplined, and if he wants to pursue competitive sports, I will support him. But competitive sports is a cruel and difficult journey, so I won’t force it on him.

Q: How long do you plan to play for? Will you become a coach?

Loh: Badminton has been my career, and I wouldn’t know what to do if I were to suddenly stop. I hope I can play for as long as I would love to, and I wouldn’t close the door on coaching.