S’pore’s Loh Kean Yew loses to Chou Tien-chen in Badminton Asia C’ships q-finals

SINGAPORE – World No. 11 Loh Kean Yew’s quest for a historic Asian title ended with a 16-21, 21-12, 21-17 defeat by sixth-ranked Taiwanese Chou Tien-chen in the men’s singles quarter-finals of the Badminton Asia Championships on April 10.

While 36-year-old Chou goes on to face China’s world No. 2 Shi Yuqi at the Ningbo Olympic Sports Centre in China for a place in the final, the Singaporean exits with US$3,025 (S$3,854) in prize money.

Like in previous years, inconsistency was once again Loh’s biggest enemy, as he builds up to the May 26-31 KFF Singapore Open and Sept 19-Oct 4 Asian Games in Japan.

He made a bright start to the year with semi-final appearances at the India Open and Indonesia Masters in January – chalking up wins over Chou and Thailand’s world No. 1 Kunlavut Vitidsarn – and more spirited victories against top-20 players Lakshya Sen of India and Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto at the Badminton Asia Team Championships in February.

However, the 28-year-old failed to advance past the second round at the All England Open and Swiss Open in March.

On March 10, Loh also dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since May 13, 2025.

At the US$550,000 Asia Championships, he required three games to beat India’s 30th-ranked Srikanth Kidambi in a repeat of the 2021 world championship final, and also Japan’s world No. 21 Koki Watanabe.

Meanwhile, Chou enjoyed a straight-sets victory over Thailand’s Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul in the first round and a walkover win over China’s Lu Guangzu in the last 16.

Chou’s freshness perhaps proved the difference as he came back from a 12-16 deficit in the decider to beat Loh to take a 6-5 lead in their head-to-head record.