Singapore’s world No. 42 shuttler Loh Kean Yew exited the Olympics on Wednesday (July 28) but put up an excellent fighting display in a 2-1 (22-20, 13-21, 21-18) defeat by world No. 7 Jonatan Christie at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza.
The 24-year-old had not beaten the Indonesian in three previous meetings, but like in all those matches, it was another three-setter.
At Tokyo 2020, Loh fought back ferociously after trailing for virtually the entire first set, rattling off six of the next seven points at 14-18 down to lead 20-19 and get back to game-point.
But the Singaporean failed to put away the reigning Asian Games champion and Christie, 23, capitalised, fighting back to take the set 22-20.
Rather than despair about the one that got away, Loh made sure there would be no repeat in the second game with a more pro-active display.
Coming back from 2-6 down, Loh first took the lead at 9-8, part of a sequence of 10 straight points which took the score to 15-9.
There was no looking back from there as the 24-year-old closed out the second set 21-13 to take the match to a third-set decider.
An upset looked on the cards when Loh, who famously beat Lin Dan in the final of the Thailand Masters in 2019, took a 5-2 lead in the third set.
Christie, a four-time SEA Games gold medallist, then fought back to take the lead at 6-5, never relinquishing it for the rest of the match.
Loh kept it close, most notably narrowing the Indonesian’s lead to just one at 16-17 and saving two match-points, before eventually succumbing 21-18 to wrap up their 68-minute encounter.
The 2019 SEA Games silver medallist’s compatriot, women’s world No. 30 Yeo Jia Min also exited Tokyo 2020 in the group stage, losing 21-13, 21-14 to South Korea’s world No. 18 Kim Ga-eun in just 30 minutes.
Both Loh and Yeo, 22, were playing in their first Olympics.
