Singapore’s Jason Teh closes in on career-first international badminton title at Macau Open
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Singapore's Jason Teh makes his first-ever final at a Super 300 event.
PHOTO: ST FILE
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SINGAPORE – In the battle of the Jasons at the Macau Open, Singapore’s Jason Teh emerged triumphant after defeating Jason Gunawan of Hong Kong 24-22, 21-18 in the semi-finals on Sept 28.
The victory in 58 minutes puts the 44th-ranked player on the cusp of his first international badminton title. The winner of the US$210,000 (S$269,000) tournament will pocket US$15,750.
The 24-year-old said: “I’m happy because this is my first Super 300 final. I wasn’t thinking about the score, I was thinking about how to win the next point.
“I just want to take one match at a time and try my best.”
Just a day ago, he claimed the biggest scalp of his professional career
Teh will face Hong Kong’s second seed and world No. 25 Angus Ng – who beat Indonesia’s Alwi Farhan 8-21, 21-18, 21-16 in the other semi-final – in the title decider on Sept 29.
Teh and world No. 49 Gunawan were neck and neck in a tense encounter on the court.
With the score tied at 5-5, the Singaporean finally found a breakthrough to surge to a 10-5 lead. But the see-saw battle continued as the lead continued to change hands, before Gunawan looked set to clinch victory at 20-19.
The Hong Konger then held off three game points but eventually succumbed 24-22 to his rival.
Things looked headed the same way in the next game, but at 13-15 Teh managed to pull away after firing off six consecutive points (19-15), before seeing out the game 21-18.
This is the furthest Teh has reached at this level, which is behind the Super 1000, 750 and 500 events. His previous best result was reaching the semi-final of another Super 300 event at the US Open in June.
Teh had also made the semi-finals at the Super 100 Vietnam Open in September and lost in the final of the lower-tier Polish Open in March and Luxembourg Open two months later.
In 2022, Teh won mixed team bronze at the Commonwealth Games and men’s team bronze at the Asian Team Championships. He also has four bronze medals at the SEA Games from the men’s team event (2019, 2021 and 2023) and singles (2021).
