Text by BWF – Dev Sukumar |
One year after he beat Loh Kean Yew at the BWF World Championships 2025, Victor Lai ran into the same opponent – this time in the Round of 16.
Remarkably, when he came away after the 22-20 21-18 win, he knew it was the same score by which he had won last time.
Loh had almost run away with the first game with eight straight points, but Lai took it deep and nicked it, and in the second he staged a mini-comeback with a display of immaculate control, astute defence, and opportunistic attack.
Next up will be a quarterfinal against Rasmus Gemke.
The Canadian spoke about the two matches one year apart – a year which has seen him arrive as a relative unknown and now establish himself among the elite.
One Year Apart, Same Score
Actually, the score was exactly the same. It was very similar to last time, with a lot of momentum shifts. In the first game I was down and I came back and won in deuce.
I won’t say I’m happy with the performance, but I did enough to beat him today.
I just looked at our head-to-head and we’d played last year and it was 22-20 and 21-18. I only thought of it once we came off. I was like, oh, it’s the exact same score, and the game also went pretty similarly, first set kind of pulled away at deuce, and then second set there was like a bigger score differential. But at the end I kind of pulled away. So I’m happy with the way I ended the game.
Tactical Shifts
Speed-wise he’s a lot quicker than me, so I can’t give him the opportunity to use his speed. In the second game I was down because I kept trying to increase his court speed, but he’s faster than me, so I had to kind of slow it down, and he started to make mistakes, and since he already lost the first game, I think nerves started to come into play and he made a lot of unforced errors.
I think he sort of eased in the game too much, a little bit slow, maybe he was a little bit nervous, so he made a couple of easy mistakes. But credit to him, but also I think I could have done better, I let him come into the game too easily. Everyone knows that once Loh has his touch and has his speed, he’s very hard to stop. So I have to do better at just not letting my opponent come into the game so easily.
I think I did better at the end of the second game. Maybe in the beginning, I sort of was a little nervous, and I hit a couple out, and there’s also a bit of a drift, and his control was actually very good in the second. He knew how to use the wind to kind of bring the shuttle back in.
Second World Championships
It’s completely opposite — from nobody to someone who’s been playing pretty well recently, so there are expectations and I feel a bit of pressure and nerves, but that’s all part of the game and I’m trying to turn my nervousness into excitement.
I feel pretty good with the conditions. I’m just super happy with the consistency I’m showing, and hopefully I can take it step-by-step and make it into the semis and then keep going.
Follow Lai’s BWF World Championships Journey Here:
Victor Lai Diary: The Campaign Begins
