However, Minh failed to beat Chinese Bao Chunlai in their semi-final yesterday.

Minh lost to the Chinese 21-16, 21-13.

It was an historic victory for Minh as he stunned the world’s top player Lee for the first time on Thursday.

The HCM City-born athlete fought from behind to win the first set 24-22 after the tough Malaysian rival was leading 9-3 in the opening minutes.

In the second set, Minh seemed a bit nervous with a 20-18 lead, but Lee rallied and tied the score to win the set, 22-20.

Minh had a poor start in the third set but finally found his rhythm to level at 18-all before knocking-out Lee out 21-19 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

“I didn’t play well and the draught in the stadium made it hard to control the shuttle, and Tien Minh was in top form,” Lee said.

Troublesome draught

“There have been quite a lot of upsets because of draughts and I tried my best to avoid that.

” I managed to rally to 18-20 in the second set but was not confident enough in the third.

“I have to accept the defeat and come back strongly at the Indonesia Open next week,” he told the New Straits Times website.

“My preparations for the tournament were not good and I played badly, so I have to accept the result.”

Meanwhile, Minh was elated after his win. “I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it,” he gasped.

Minh has set his sights on a top 10 place on next month’s World Badminton Federation’s rankings.

Becamex Binh Duong Company, which sponsors Minh, announced a VND50 million (US$2,800) cash prize for Minh’s triumph on Thursday, which will add to the VND10 million ($550) he will receive from the chairman of HCM City’s badminton federation, Le Dang Xu.

VietNamNet/VNS