Dr. Lee Kin Tat (born 1939) is a Malayan-born Singaporean former

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

player who won numerous international singles titles from the late 1950s to the late 1960s, including the open championships of

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, and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. He was considered by many as Singapore's badminton star of the 1960s. Lee was known to be able to execute a smash from any corner of the court.

Early life

Lee, the oldest of five children was born in Perak to rubber magnate Lee In Tong. He later moved to Penang, then Singapore, where he studied at St Joseph's Institution. When Lee was 19 (as the school's boy champion), he served notice of his talent by upsetting top Singapore players Omar Ibrahim and V.S.S. Nathan. He later moved to London to study at Imperial College and played in Britain and Europe.

Badminton career

Lee won two titles at the 1959 French Open. In the season of 1960, he finished second at the German Open. In 1963 and 1967, he again won the French Open. In 1964, Lee reached the semifinal of the prestigious All-England Championships by ending Erland Kops' run of four straight titles in the quarterfinal. Although Lee lost in the semi-finals to eventual champion Knud Aage Nielsen of Denmark, he, however had a great year by winning 12 titles from the autumn of 1963 to April 1964. Lee also reached the All-England semifinal in 1967, this time losing to Kops. In 1966 and 1967, he won the Scottish Open. In 1969, he won two tournament victories in the Belgian International. Largely because most of his prime badminton years were spent in Europe, he did not play in

Thomas Cup The Thomas Cup, sometimes called the World Men's Team Championships, is an international badminton competition among teams representing member nations of the Badminton World Federation (BWF), the sport's global governing body. The championships ha ...

(men's international team) competition for either Malaysia or Singapore. Lee retired from competitive badminton in 1973 and later served as president of the SBA and secretary-general of the Asian Badminton Confederation.

Personal life

Lee is a grandfather of five and runs his own financial business. He took 8 years to complete his doctorate (Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Physics) due to his commitment to excel in badminton. He never had formal coaching but got tips from the late

Ong Poh Lim Ong Poh Lim (; 18 November 1923 – 17 April 2003) was a Malayan/Singaporean badminton player who had won numerous national and international titles from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. Known for his quickness and his aggressive, unorthodox ...

Achievements

References

1939 births Living people Malaysian male badminton players Singaporean male badminton players Malaysian sportspeople of Chinese descent Singaporean sportspeople of Chinese descent {{Singapore-badminton-bio-stub