Singapore's Loh Kean Yew has won the Taipei Open after beating home favourite Chou Tien-chen in the final. -- PHOTO: BADMINTONPHOTO via The Straits Times/ANN
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): Loh Kean Yew looks to have rediscovered his killer instinct as he beat home favourite and world No. 7 Chou Tien-chen 21-14, 15-21, 22-20 in the men’s singles final at the US$240,000 (S$311,650) Taipei Open on May 11 for his 10th career title.
Notably, he is the first Singaporean to win at this tournament, and this is also the 27-year-old’s first title since he became a father in July 2024. He earned US$18,000 for his triumph in the Super 300 tournament, which is behind the Super 1000, 750 and 500 events on the Badminton World Federation World Tour.
Throughout the Taipei Open, Loh showed his mental fortitude to come back from deficits to beat Hong Kong’s Chan Yin Chak (105th), Finland’s Joakim Oldorff (52nd), Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul (49th) and Taiwanese Wang Tzu-wei (26th) in the earlier rounds.
He displayed more of the same in the final against 35-year-old Chou, who has done outstandingly to get back into the top 10 after recovering from his stage zero colorectal cancer diagnosis in 2023.
Loh, whose previous title was at the 2024 Spain Masters, made a fine start in the first game to lead 3-0 as Chou struggled to gauge lifts to the back court, but found himself trailing 8-10.
Instead of folding, he fought to regain control of the game and began his comeback by winning a 52-shot rally with a body shot after making two diving backhand saves. He also won 13 out of 17 points, including all of the last six points, to close out the opener.
Seeking his fifth Taipei Open title, Chou came roaring back with some delicate net drops to put Loh on the backfoot and level the match with a 21-15 win.
But it was the 2021 world champion who prevailed in a tight decider, wobbling as he squandered four match-points from 20-16 up before he sealed his first title of the year with a successful challenge following a precise drop shot.
Since becoming a father, Loh has been making a steady return to form.
After making it to the 2024 Paris Olympics quarter-finals in August, he won just five out of 15 matches and was knocked out at the first round in six out of nine BWF World Tour tournaments before he reached the 2025 German Open final and lost to Denmark’s Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen in March.
He then made it to the All England Open quarter-finals later that month and finished joint-third at the Badminton Asia Championships in April.
Following that, a training camp in China’s Jiangxi, where he trained with retired Chinese player Zhao Junpeng, who was the 2022 world championships bronze medallist, also helped.
National singles head coach Kim Ji-hyun said: “In Singapore, with a limited pool of players in the national team, it is difficult to maintain a high intensity of training for our top-tier players that includes quality match play which simulates actual competition conditions.
“The overseas training camps allow our players to learn different playing styles, and also to adapt and respond effectively to these styles in competition.
“Even though the intensity and the volume of training has been high, our players are doing great. I hope they will perform well in the tournaments ahead.”
Elsewhere, Japan’s Tomoka Miyazaki beat Thailand qualifier Pitchamon Opatniputh 21-12, 20-22, 21-14 in the battle of two 18-year-old former world junior champions to become the women’s singles champion.
There were reasons for the home crowd to cheer at the Taipei Arena when Hsieh Pei-shan and Hung En-tzu beat Japan’s Mizuki Otake and Miyu Takahashi 21-14, 21-15 for the women’s doubles title before Chiu Hsiang-chieh and Wang Chi-lin beat South Korea’s Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju 21-18, 21-15 in the men’s doubles final.
In the all-Indonesia mixed doubles final, Jafar Hidayatullah and Felisha Pasaribu beat Dejan Ferdinansyah and Siti Ramadhanti 18-21, 21-13, 21-17.
The top Singapore players will now focus on the May 13-18 Thailand Open (Super 500), before the May 20-25 Malaysia Masters (Super 500), May 27-June 1 KFF Singapore Open (Super 750) and June 3-8 Indonesia Open (Super 1000).
Women’s singles world No. 13 Yeo Jia Min is set to return from a right calf injury to compete at the Thailand Open, with men’s singles world No. 23 Jason Teh also joining the fray after sitting out the Taipei Open. The 27th-ranked mixed doubles pair Terry Hee and Jin Yujia will also feature in the Thai capital. - The Straits Times/ANN
