ITE College East, Friday, 9 January 2009 - Temasek Polytechnic routed Republic Polytechnic in the men’s singles, winning 5-0 at the 2009 Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic Games.

Prior to the match, Dr. Loke Han Ying, staff advisor of Republic Polytechnic's badminton team said, "We are here to learn a lesson today."

"Aaron is one of the stars of this tournament, together with Ronald Susilo and a few other players from SIM. "

"In fact, SIM is the strongest team in this tournament and with their 3 stars, they are almost guaranteed 3 points immediately!"

Incidentally, Dr. Loke had a friendly match with Ronald Susilo 5 years ago and was unable to match up with him as well.

In the very first match, Aaron Tan of Temasek Polytechnic lead the charge by overpowering Republic Polytechnic’s Teo Seng Hong in straight sets 21-14, 21-13 in the second singles, leading Temasek Polytechnic to victory.

Tan, lived up to his reputationby displaying an amazing variety of shots and daring gets in both sets.

He swept aside Teo with his mix of a series of drop shots and overhead smashes, Teo was left scrambling all over the court and unable to respond.

Inspired by Aaron's display, TP also swept aside RP in all the rest of the match.

Though disappointed by the loss, Republic Polytechnic can hold their heads high knowing that they have made progress.

“Our boys put up a good fight even though there is a huge gulf between RP and TP’s standard,” said Dr. Loke.

“The boys would benefit from this learning experience and hopefully return next year stronger and faster.”