Badminton: Loh Kean Yew loses to France's Christo Popov in Singapore Open quarter-finals
The world number 23 Popov took the match 21-10, 21-14 to advance to the last four, where he will face China's Lu Guangzu.
The victory means that Popov has now won three of the six meetings against Loh. He had also beaten Loh at the 2023 edition of the tournament in the round of 16.
Up against his third consecutive French opponent, world number 10 Loh struggled to find any rhythm in the first game and went behind 8-11 at the interval.
Loh had beaten Popov's older brother and doubles partner Toma the day before, but he simply had no answer to the younger Popov, who never relinquished his lead.
While Loh took an early lead in the second game, his opponent took control just before the interval and saw the game out to silence the home crowd.
Loh was the only Singaporean representative left in the competition after compatriot Yeo Jia Min was eliiminated by world number 1 An Se-young in the round of 16 on Thursday.
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