Loh Kean Yew suffers ninth straight loss to Jonatan Christie in India Open s-final defeat

SINGAPORE – Just when it looked like Loh Kean Yew had put his ghosts behind him after ending his eight-match losing run to Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn

with a quarter-final win at the India Open

on Jan 16, the Singaporean badminton player found himself back in a dreaded position.

Up against Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie, world No. 10 Loh pulled out all the tricks in his bag and pushed through a back injury, but the semi-final eventually followed an all-too-familiar script.

His extraordinary hoodoo against Christie continued as the latter triumphed 21-18, 22-20 at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Arena on Jan 17 to extend his perfect streak over the Singaporean to nine matches.

Loh told The Sunday Times that a back injury sustained in the previous round had impeded his movements. He said: “I was restricting my movements to not aggravate the pain further. Sometimes I pushed too much, sometimes I didn’t dare to push, and I had too much on my mind that I couldn’t fully focus on the match.

“Other than that, I gave my all in this tournament. I’ll have a couple of days before the start of the next event, and I’ll rest and prepare to go again.”

The consolation for Loh is that he leaves India after competing in his first Badminton World Federation World Tour Super 750 semi-final since the French Open in October 2023, pocketing US$13,300 (S$17,140) in prize money. He will feature in the Jan 20-25 Indonesia Masters next.

Super 750 events are ranked below the World Tour Finals and Super 1000 tournaments, but above the Super 500 and Super 300 competitions in terms of ranking points and prize money.

In the Jan 18 final, fourth-ranked Christie will face Taiwanese Lin Chun-yi (No. 12), who beat Canada’s world No. 19 Victor Lai 21-9, 6-21, 22-20, as the first Indonesian to reach the India Open men’s decider since Alamsyah Yunus became champion in 2010.

In their semi-final, Loh had raised hopes of an upset over Christie after he ended another eight-match losing run against world No. 2 Kunlavut in the last eight.

With both players struggling with the draught, it was the Singaporean who settled first, winning a 45-shot rally en route to notching a 13-5 advantage. Remarkably, his opponent found a way back as he chipped away at the lead to surge ahead at 18-16.

Loh, runner-up in 2022, made it 18-18 with a 430kmh smash, but that was as good as it got as the Indonesian struck a psychological blow by taking the opening game.

He also started strong in the second game, with a backhand punch unleashed with such deception and precision to make it 5-5 that his opponent acknowledged it with a thumbs up.

While Loh led 11-9, Christie was more consistent and resolute when it mattered, as the bogeyman claimed his ninth straight win over the Singaporean.

Singapore Badminton Association coaching assistant Vega Nirwanda was in Loh’s corner as singles coach Kim Ji-hyun is focusing on the national championships back home. He said: “The plan we had today was to be patient, wait for the right moment to strike and exert pressure on the opponent, but we couldn’t get this right all the time due to Kean Yew’s condition.

“Moving forward, we have to work on maintaining focus during the match and improving his shot consistency.”

The women’s singles final on Jan 18 will see world No. 1 An Se-young play China’s second-ranked Wang Zhiyi, with the South Korean winning their last nine encounters, incredibly all in finals.