Viet Nam’s second seed at the Philippines Grand Prix, Nguyen Tien Minh, dashed fans hopes by losing in the quarter-finals.

The top Vietnamese badminton player, who is ranked No 13 in the world, was beaten 12-21, 21-17, 17-21 by Hong Kong’s eighth seed Hu Yun in 53 minutes.

Expectations were rampant that Minh would take the Grand Prix title after top seed Yan Chan Kit of Hong Kong and No 3 Lee Tsuen Seng from Malaysia were both ousted in play and fourth seed Briton Andrew Smith quit the tournament.

With a gold medal win, Minh would have secured his place in the world top ten, making him a national hero and serving as a turning point in Vietnamese badminton.

However, Minh’s nerves took over in a bad way during yesterday’s quarter-final match in a long-standing battle with nervousness in big games.

Hu, who is ranked No 64 in the world, outpaced Minh and met with no difficulties in the first set to start off with a win. Minh fought back strongly in the second set but could not maintain his performance in the decisive third set.

It was a very disappointing loss for Minh, who has defeated Hu in previous tournaments. He did say, however, prior to the match that he would have to be careful when face to face with a rival who has made real progress this year.

Hu lost in the Malaysia Open semi-finals last week with a loss to world No 1 Lee Chong Wei.

In today’s semi-final, Hu will play against Chinese Du Pengyu who defeated his fellow countryman Gao Huan 21-15, 21-18 yesterday.

On the other semi-final court Chen Long and Zhou Wenlong will battle it out in an all-Chinese match.

Minh was the last Vietnamese contender at the event, as his female teammate Le Ngoc Nguyen Nhung lost in the second round 13-21, 12-21 to the tournament’s No 4 seed Jiang Yanjiao of China on Thursday.

The Philippines’ Grand Prix will offer up to US$120,000 and 7,000 bonus points for the winners. The finals are scheduled on July 7.

VNN/VNS