Loh Kean Yew misses opportunity to win S'pore Badminton Open men's singles final

Loh Kean Yew has lost the Singapore Badminton Open men's singles final against Frenchman Alex Lanier.

Loh, who is currently ranked 14th in the world, lost against the ninth-ranked Lanier.

The match held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on May 31 began at 7:40pm and was livestreamed on SPOTV's YouTube and broadcast at various ActiveSG centres and People's Association locations, in collaboration with Sport Singapore.

At noon on the day of the finals, activesgcircle's Instagram page announced the livestream, saying "Sport Singapore, working with SPOTV, is bringing the live action to you".

"So you can join the nation in cheering on our TeamSG athlete."

The final

Loh had a shaky start with Lanier leading the first half of the set, before Loh caught up and won the first set 21-17.

Loh fell to the floor on Lanier’s 19th point in the second set. Loh lost the second set 15-21.

Loh fell again on Lanier’s 12th point in the third set.

Loh challenged Lanier’s 20th point in the third set but was unsuccessful as his shuttlecock was out of the court.

Loh lost the third set 14-21.

Prior matches

Loh had beaten India's 37th-ranked Srikanth Kidambi, 35th-ranked H.S. Prannoy, 18th-ranked Taiwanese Chi Yu-jen, and Japan’s 19th-ranked Koki Watanabe earlier in the week.

Loh is now the first Singaporean to reach the men’s singles final since Ronald Susilo in 2002.

In 2025, the tournament was screened on MediaCorp’s MeWatch and StarHub via SPOTV.

However, in 2026, viewing the tournament was only accessible through the SPOTV Now website via a $19.98 monthly subscription.

Singapore Badminton Association chief executive officer Woo Kaiwei told The Straits Times that domestic broadcast rights to this year’s tournament were licensed to SPOTV.

He said: "Opportunities for additional local broadcast distribution were explored; however, the required commercial arrangements were not finalised for this edition."