Loh bags the championship as Lee concedes

Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew claimed the 2021 BWF World Tour Super 500 Hylo Open championship on Sunday in Saarbrücken, Germany.

This is by far the biggest title Loh's has at the BWF Super 500 level. Previous to this Loh had won the Thailand Masters, a Super 300 event, in 2019 when he beat legendary Lin Dan.

The world no.39 Loh was leading the match 19-21, 21-13, 17-12 when the world no.8 Lee Zii Jia conceded the match due to a back injury.

In the post-match interview, the overjoyed Loh said, "This is a good milestone for my career and I will continue working hard to make sure there is more to come. I'm delighted to win this tournament, but I hope Lee is not too badly injured. We both wanted to win this badly and put up a fierce fight.”

In other matches, Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan beat Singaporean Yeo Jia Min to claim the women’s title. Scoreline 21-10, 21-14.

Indonesia’s world no.1 pair of Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sukamuljo beat fellow countrymen Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Marthin 21-14, 21-19 and claimed their seventh BWF Super 500 men’s doubles title.

Women’s doubles was an all-Japanese affair between world no.68 Chisato Hoshi / Aoi Matsuda versus world no.60 Rin Iwanaga / Kie Nakanishi.

Hoshi and Matsuda beat Iwanaga and Nakanishi 22-20, 21-18.

The mixed doubles final was between Thailand’s Dechapol Puavaranukroh / Sapsiree Taerattanachai, first seed versus Indonesia’s Praveen Jordan / Melati Daeva Oktavianti, the second seed. The top seeds beat second seeds in straight games, 22-20, 21-14, and bagged their fourth BWF Super 500 title.

After a week’s break, badminton will move to Asia with the Indonesia Masters starting from 16th November.