Vietnam’s badminton star Nguyen Tien Minh defeated Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto 2-1 in the YONEX Chinese Taipei Gold Grand Prix quarterfinals Friday and now expects to earn a final berth.

However, Sugiarto fought back fiercely and won the second set by the same margin to be on equal terms with Minh.

In the decider, Vietnam’s number one cruised to a 21-4 victory while the Indonesian looked exhausted.

Winning a semis berth like last year means Minh has reached his goal to remain in the world’s top ten.

However, now Minh is looking forward to wining a berth in the final match as his opponent in the semis will be the 15th seed Malaysian Muhammad Hafiz Hashm, 19 places below Minh.

Yet the world’s 29th Malaysian may not be an easy rival as he upset the second seed and world number eight South Korean Sung Hwan Park in straight sets in the third round and swept aside the eighth seed and world number 19 Indonesian Andre Kurniawan Tedjono in the quarters Friday.

Reported by Nhut Quang