Loh Kean Yew beat South Korea’s Yoo Tae-bin 21-19, 19-21, 21-12 in the men’s singles semi-final at Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium on Monday, 28 September 2026, to become the first Singaporean to reach an Asian Games badminton final.
World number 13 Loh needed 69 minutes to see off the unseeded 22-year-old, who had already dumped out Lin Chun-yi, Shi Yu Qi and Kodai Naraoka on his way to the last four. Yoo took the second game after Loh had edged a tight opener, then the Singaporean pulled clear in the decider and closed it out 21-12.
The win guarantees Loh at least a silver. Before this Games, the republic’s only Asian Games badminton medal was a women’s team bronze at Doha 2006. His quarter-final win over world number 1 Jonatan Christie, which ended a 10-match losing run against the Indonesian, had already secured Singapore’s first Asian Games men’s singles badminton medal.
Final against Kunlavut Vitidsarn on Tuesday
He faces Thailand’s world number 2 Kunlavut Vitidsarn in Tuesday’s final. Loh holds a 2-8 head-to-head record against the Thai, though he won their last meeting in January in three games. Kunlavut also beat him in the 2022 SEA Games final.
“Obviously happy to make the final of the Asian Games, but I need to stay focused for tomorrow’s game,” Loh said after the semi-final. The Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games run from 19 September to 4 October 2026.
