Loy Ming Ying walked into the Youth Olympic Games as the 10th seed in the women’s singles. On Thursday 5 November she plays for a place in the gold-medal match at the Dakar Expo Center, after a quarter-final that turned on three saved game points.
The 16-year-old beat fourth seed Nina Guo Zheng of France 4-1 on Wednesday, 13-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-4, 13-11. She took the first two games by forcing errors off Guo Zheng’s bat, lost a scrappy third, and pulled clear again in the fourth.
The fifth game was where it nearly slipped. Loy led 7-5, then the European youth champion won five points in a row to stand at three game points. Loy saved all three, retook the lead and closed it out on her second match point.
Her coach, Hao Anlin, told her to change her serve at 11-11 so she could attack first. “She’s a very good player and I had to fight for it,” Loy said afterwards.
Who stands between Loy and the final
Her semi-final opponent is Su Tsz Tung of Hong Kong. The other semi-final pits top seed Matsushima Miku of Japan, who won the mixed doubles with Kawakami Ryuusei on Tuesday, against fifth seed Chen Minhsin of Chinese Taipei. Matsushima reached the last four by beating Poland’s Katarzyna Rajkowska 4-0.
Loy did not sound like someone counting medals. “I don’t have expectations,” she said. “I just came into this match to try my best. I might get a surprise.”
The semi-finals are in Thursday’s 10am-to-1pm session in Dakar, which is 6pm to 9pm in Singapore, and the singles medals are decided later the same day. The women’s gold-medal match is set for 5.30pm local time, which is 1.30am on Friday 6 November in Singapore.
The road to the last four
Loy’s run started to look serious on Tuesday 3 November, when she beat India’s Syndrela Das 4-0 (11-7, 11-6, 11-4, 11-6) in the round of 16. She admitted the group matches had rattled her. “In the first few matches I was actually really nervous, but now I know the feeling of playing,” she said.
In the stands for the Guo Zheng match was sailor Kate Teo, her roommate in Dakar.
Ng Zhe Nin has already delivered gold
Singapore’s first medal of these Games came on the same Tuesday, in a sport making its Youth Olympic debut. Ng Zhe Nin, 16 and the reigning junior world champion in girls’ youth taijiquan, won the women’s taijiquan combined with 18.713.
The event combines two routines. Ng came through the preliminary round ranked first, led after the taijishan routine with 9.353 and sealed it with 9.360 in the taijiquan.
“Very relieved that all my endless training hours paid off and it’s finally over,” Ng said.
Zack Ng’s campaign ends in the group stage
Badminton did not go Singapore’s way. Zack Ng, 17, lost his final men’s singles group match 21-16, 21-10 to Thailand’s Punnatat Prempunpong at Dakar Arena, which ended his Games. He felt he did not adapt well to the extra wind on court that day.
The Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games run from 31 October to 13 November. For the team that flew out and who carried the flag, read our earlier piece on Team Singapore’s flag bearers for the Asian Games and Youth Olympic Games.
