VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese No 1 Nguyen Tien Minh leapt from 24th to 19th in the World Badminton Federation’s rankings, which were announced on Thursday.

Minh, who became the first Vietnamese badminton player to compete in the Olympics in Beijing last month, had been striving over the last few months to make it into the world top 20.

Last week, the HCM City-based athlete advanced to the quarter-finals of the Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold Open 2008. He said he was proud and delighted to make it into the top 20.

“It’s a great honour. I never dreamt I’d actually make it into the top of 20 in the world,” said Minh, who lost in the first round of the Bejing Olympics to a far-weaker Taiwanese player, which his coach blamed on nerves.

Minh said his rise in the world rankings made up for his disappointment in Beijing.

“My promotion has helped me recover from my poor performance during the Beijing Olympics last month.”

However, Minh will be missing the Super Series in Japan, where he could have raised his world ranking because he is competing in the National Badminton Championship.

“I’ll try to do my best in international tournaments to progress higher,” Minh said.

Minh is scheduled to compete in five more international tournaments this year – the Macau Grand Prix, the Danish Super Series, the French Super Series, the Hong Kong Open and the Viet Nam Open.

(Source: VNS)