Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew through to Asian Games badminton final after beating South Korea’s Yoo

NAGOYA: Loh Kean Yew saw off South Korean giant-killer Yoo Tae-bin in the last four on Monday (Sep 28) to become the first Singaporean to reach an Asian Games badminton final.

At the Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium, the Singaporean won 21-19, 19-21, 21-12 in their first career meeting.

The unheralded Yoo, ranked 46th in the world, has been on a sensational run at the Games, dumping out Chinese Taipei's Lin Chun-yi (world number 11), China's Shi Yu Qi (world number 6) and Japan's Kodai Naraoka (world number 7).

World number 13 Loh will next face Thailand’s world number 2 Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the final on Tuesday.

Prior to this edition of the meet, Singapore's only Games medal in badminton was the women's team bronze at the 2006 Doha Games.

In the first game, Yoo showed no signs of being overawed by the higher-ranked Loh. He clawed his way back from 4-7 down, but the Singaporean kept his composure to take a two-point interval lead after a trademark smash down the line.

While three straight unforced errors from Yoo allowed Loh to take a 18-12 lead, a late flurry of points saw him come within one point of tying things up, before the Singaporean took the game.

Yoo went up early in the second game courtesy of some fine attacking play and took a 11-8 interval lead. While Loh fought his way back to level at 19-19, the South Korean took the match to a decider.

But the Singaporean would not let his head drop and he took a five-point advantage at the interval, before booking his place in the final.

Loh has been in fine form since the competition began. He started his campaign on Saturday by beating world number 14 Lakshya Sen, and then seeing off Malaysia's Justin Hoh in the round of 16.

His breakthrough came in the quarter-finals when he snapped a 10-match winless streak against world number 1 Jonatan Christie, guaranteeing Singapore a historic men's singles medal in badminton.