SINGAPORE: No stranger to a giant-killing run over the years, it was world number 9 Loh Kean Yew’s turn to be on the receiving end on Friday (Aug 29) after losing to Canada’s Victor Lai in the BWF World Championships men’s singles quarter-finals.
In their first meeting, world championship debutant Lai, ranked 50th in the world, took the match 22-20, 21-18 at the Adidas Arena in Paris.
In the early exchanges, there was little separating both players, and it was the unruffled Lai, 20, who went into the interval 11-8 ahead after picking up four consecutive points.
But Loh, 28, has shown grit throughout the tournament, and capitalised on a number of errors by Lai to overturn the deficit and take a 17-12 lead.
The Canadian, however, was far from done as he levelled things at 19-19 and once again at 20-20, before seeing the first game out in 22 minutes.
The Singaporean started much stronger in the second game and raced to a 4-0 lead. However, Lai once again showed he was not overawed by the occasion or his higher-ranked opponent, and put together a run of eight straight points.
Lai went into the interval 11-9 ahead, and Loh would not regain the lead again as his opponent claimed his biggest scalp of the tournament so far.
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