Loh Kean Yew loses marathon q-final to Christo Popov at Hong Kong Open

SINGAPORE – In a badminton match that first resembled a round of chess and ended like a marathon, Frenchman Christo Popov prevailed to beat Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew 21-18, 9-21, 29-27 in the Hong Kong Open men’s singles quarter-finals on Sept 12.

Popov won on his fourth match point, while Loh squandered five match-winning opportunities.

After taking a 4-3 lead in their head-to-head record, the world No. 10 Popov advances to the Sept 13 semi-finals of the US$500,000 (S$642,000) event, where he will meet China’s fourth-ranked Li Shifeng, while Loh exits with US$3,000 in prize money.

The other semi-final will pit India’s world No. 20 Lakshya Sen against sixth-ranked Taiwanese Chou Tien-chen.

Loh, who will play at the Sept 16-21 China Masters next, was left disappointed as the third game could have gone either way.

He told The Straits Times: “At such a crucial stage, it was anyone’s game, and of course it’s disappointing to lose after coming so close to winning.

“I’ll have to get over this as I always have to stay focused for the next match, no matter what happens at the previous one.

“I think my condition is better than two weeks ago at the world championships as I have recovered more from the bacterial infection, but I’m still not at full fitness yet.”

Despite not being at his best, he and Popov played out a tactical first two games, and then an enthralling decider at the Hong Kong Coliseum.

Playing with the draught behind him, Loh did well to lead early on, but soon found his shots sailing long as Popov profited and overtook him.

The Singaporean world No. 8 pulled out all the stops to stay in the game, winning a 48-shot rally to make it 11-11, catching up to 15-15 again and unleashing a 442kmh smash. But his frequent unforced errors proved too costly as the Frenchman claimed the first game at the third attempt.

Loh used his experience from the opener to quickly gain a foothold on the second game, engaging Popov at the net – luring him to lift to the back court, earning points when the shots went long and pouncing when they were short – and swiftly levelling the match with a 21-9 win.

As both players came to grips with the conditions, Loh arrested a 0-3 deficit at the start of the decider and tied with Popov on 10 occasions as they reached 19-19 in a battle of wits and nerves.

Few among the crowd would have expected the lengthy exchange that followed after Popov saved the first match point with a body smash, but both warriors just refused to give in without a fight, displaying admirable fitness and finesse as Loh saved a point from the floor and on his knees.

He would have four more opportunities to seal the match, but just could not put one away. Loh also did well to save three match points, but was ultimately unable to weather Popov’s variety of smashes and drop shots.

National singles head coach Kim Ji-hyun said: “I’m naturally not happy with the result today.

“Kean Yew needs to show greater variations in his match play. His smashes today were largely neutralised by Popov, so he should be playing more drop shots instead. We will also continue to work on his fitness.”