Team Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew breaks into badminton world rankings top 10

Team Singapore Shuttler Loh Kean Yew has surged into the top 10 of the badminton world rankings. 

In the latest rankings list published by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Tuesday (Feb 22), Kean Yew moved up three spots into ninth. 

The 24-year-old recently led the Singapore’s men’s national team to a bronze medal finish at the Badminton Asia Team Championships in Selangor, Malaysia last week.

Kean Yew had won all but one of his singles matches during the tournament as Singapore advanced to the semi-finals, where Singapore lost 3-2 to Indonesia. However, Singapore did qualify for the Thomas Cup finals, which will take place in May.

The only defeat for Kean Yew at the championships was against Malaysia’s world number seven Lee Zii Jia. 

Kean Yew earned 7,106 ranking points over the course of the tournament, helping him overtake Hong Kong’s Angus Ng, India’s Kidambi Srikanth, and Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke. The Singapore shuttler currently has 70,506 points total.

This is the first time a Singaporean shuttler has reached top 10 of the world rankings since Ronald Susilo in 2004.